Scheme
by AbsoluteObscurity
Summary: “Come on, mate, we all know that professors are only so horrible and uptight because of their complete and utter lack of a sex drive.” The Marauders decide to take matters into their own hands and Remus and Sirius get trapped in the divination tower. RLSB
1. In Which Trapdoors Fall Shut

**Uhh… I have NO idea how this came about. At all. Seriously. I just really, for some insane reason, I felt like writing a Remus / Sirius. Anywho, this first chapter is dedicated to JAYNE, even though she probably won't read it, because we haven't talked much lately and I think she's mad at me or something. xx But YES. This goes out to yoooou. And our crazy 2 AM Legend of Zelda... escapades. Yes.**

**Oh, right, Disclaimer. If you _seriously _think that I think that I own any of these characters, you need to go get a fork, lick it, and stick it into an electrical outlet. Because you're just _that _stupid.**

It had been an intricately crafted plan that they had only dreamt of properly executing for several months, and today… Today they had _finally _managed to pull it off. The 'grand scheme', as James was prone to calling it, had begun as a mere idea when Wormtail had finally returned to the common room after a particularly painful Friday night detention with his Ancient Runes professor. (This, of course, was a subject that James and Sirius had refused to consider when Peter asked them to try it with him, and they constantly threw the line "Told you so, you git!" into the conversation whenever the smallest mention of his class came up.)

He had, as Remus could recollect perfectly, came in and slumped in one of the armchairs by the fire, leaning back rather listlessly and looking with heavy eyes on where the werewolf was sitting and reading his newest book. In retrospect, Lupin should have asked him what was wrong right away, considering the fact that he looked completely and utterly miserable, but then again… Peter _had _been looking rather down as of late, so he had waved it off without much prompting.

"What's wrong with _you_, Wormtail? You look like you had to swallow a cockroach cluster from Snivellus or something." James had been playing chess as he spoke up, idly ordering his knight to smash one of Sirius' pawns.

It took a moment before Peter replied, but his voice when he did was quivering with suppressed rage. "She's just… such a terrible, horrible, _disgusting_ creature!"

Remus distinctly remembered looking up at the shorter Marauder and raising a slender eyebrow as he spluttered indignantly.

"I take it that detention didn't go well? I _told _you not to flirt with that… what's her name again?" Sirius was pondering over the game as he spoke out, not putting much thought into his words.

"Sara Cress," Peter had snapped back promptly, sliding down even deeper into his chair as Sirius' bishop threw James' knight rather roughly off of the board, prompting an amused snigger from Black's direction.

Remus had put his book down on one knee, tilting his head up to look at his friend, a light grin casting over his features. "Well? Did she get her _third_ box of chocolates yet? Still think you should've given them to me…"

Wormtail slipped down even further, to the point where the werewolf couldn't see any of him over the armchair apart from his legs that dangled carelessly over the carpet of the common room. "The Professor stole all three from her desk and then gave me an entire week of detention for it! That disgusting, filthy…"

Sirius had found the conversation fit for him to properly participate in by this point, so he sat up, pausing in his game to cut the irritated Wormtail off. "Come _on_, mate, we **all** know that professors are only so horrible and uptight because of their complete and utter lack of a sex drive. We've debated about this before."

And that they had, although it had been over a crate of stolen firewhiskey that James had somehow managed to drag back from Hogsmeade a while back, and nobody but Remus could truly remember that it hadn't been as much of a discussion as a continuous ramble filled with curses and off-topic thoughts.

James nodded sagely at this whilst another one of Sirius' pieces was wrestled off the board before he leaned over to look thoughtful before locking eyes with Peter's armchair.

"Maybe she has her eye on Sara and wants to steal her from you, my _poor_ Wormtail," his voice was wrought with sarcasm, but it did exactly what Prongs had intended – it worked Peter up in less than a millisecond. Sirius, unable to resist laughing at the expression on his face, added that he would have to dashingly rescue the maiden from the fire-breathing dragon by creating a distraction, to which Peter objected rather loudly.

"That's _insane_, Padfoot! What the hell is **wrong** with you?!"

"I never said that _you _had to be the distraction," he looked indignant at the very thought that he would ever endanger a fellow Marauder. "However… Peter, what does her office look like?"

Remus didn't remember much else of that evening apart from the constant laughter as they devised a plan that he himself had never imagined would come into use. After all, although they pulled off more than their fair share of pranks, they still had hundreds and thousands that they had dreamt up and never gotten around to. After all, it basically consisted of getting into the professor's office and having the werewolf charm the portraits into having hundreds of thousands of naked men and women constantly dancing, bouncing and moving across the office's walls. Of course, Remus had protested when he heard that _he _was the one who had to cast the imagery spell, but James didn't exactly budge on who-was-doing-what. After all, James had already claimed that he would ruin it (charms had never been his forte), and he claimed the job of 'lookout' with Peter **and **at least he would be the one supplying the pictures. Sirius would be the one to place the sticking charm on the portraits, as Remus wanted someone to go with him. After all, if he was going to go down, he sure as _hell_ was taking someone else with him.

On a slightly separate note, Remus knew better than to ask where Prongs was getting the photographs, and he knew, better still, not to mention the prank to Lily.

(It really was, Remus reflected later, no wonder that Lily refused to talk to James most of the time.)

Time went on, and now, here they were. Remus was posting rather lewd pictures of a certain redheaded girl and some other people that he barely recognized over the normally stiff-nosed paintings that lived in Peter's professor's office and trying to keep himself from staring at… well, anything. His face was red enough as it was without an entire legion full of naked people with nothing to hide springing around and he could hardly contain himself from breathing a rather deep sigh of relief when he finally pasted the last one across a portrait of a lady with horribly bushy eyebrows.

Sirius had been diligently following behind him, casting amused glances at the crimson that masked over his lycanthrope friend's face as he cast the sticking charms to the 9 separate portraits that spread over the study. He finished with a huge grin on his face as six Lily-photos went to their own separate portrait to do something or another that Sirius suddenly found himself _very _interested in before he was hauled off by Remus, who couldn't leave the room fast enough.

"Merlin, Moony, it's not like we're going to be caught if-"

"Damn it, Sirius, we _need _to go… I don't want to risk—"

A clatter was heard from down the hall and the werewolf froze, petrified, his hand still latched to Sirius' sleeve as amber eyes darted back and forth, trying desperately to find the source of the noise, his heart hammering wildly against his chest.

Sirius didn't quite understand why his friend had stopped moving, so he kept walking onwards, expression more than sulky as he tugged the other along- and promptly tripped over an extended leg, crashing to the stone floor and dragging an insanely startled werewolf along with him. Gray eyes were now wider than Remus' as they swept over the hallway, wincing as he pushed a rather flustered Moony from where he had landed on the animagi's torso.

Peeves was floating there, grinning toothily at the pair, calculating eyes measuring the pair of them up. "Oh, it's Black and Lupin! You just missed your friendsies… I don't think _they'll _have as much detention as you will though, when they see what you've done to the Professor's room…" Shrieking laughter followed this and he rocked back and forth in midair merrily.

Sirius had stood up by now, black hair askew and ruffled as he hauled Lupin up with him, ignoring the strange amounts of stuttering and blushing from his friend.

Footsteps were approaching from down the hall and, without much further ado, Padfoot immediately snagged onto Remus' hand and started running as fast as he could, feet pounding against the stone floors as they ran. Damn James for taking the map, damn Peter for hating this stupid professor, damn Remus for going along with the plan…

Gleeful shouts of "That way, Sir, they went **_that _**way!" echoed tauntingly down the passage, and the taller male found himself hauling Remus behind him and up several flights of stairs, winding upwards…

"Damn it!"

His voice was hoarse and breathless as he finally let go of Moony's hand, which was slick with a light sheen of sweat. Letting a quiet groan escape him, he slumped back against the nearest wall to catch his breath. The brunette wasn't faring much better, as his full moon had been in the past week and he was left significantly weaker than usual. Remus practically collapsed to the floor, pressing his cheek against the wall and keeping it there, internally begging the coldness to spread through the rest of his body. Light brown hair was sticking to his face as he tried to catch his breath, his gut burning. After all, _this _Marauder was hardly the most athletic of the four. They were both silent for a short period of time, staying completely still until voices- Peeves and a rather outraged Slughorn- sliced through the quiet air that had surrounded them, causing both of them to jerk and for Remus to send a worried glance in his friend's direction.

Sirius nodded lightly, helping the werewolf up and they started off again, only going higher and higher as the Gryffindors climbed until there was a sudden lack of stairs. If asked, Sirius would have blamed it on a conspiracy against him-- first it was the lack of naked-people-orgies, then tripping over Peeves and _now_, they were going to be caught by an infuriated potions master and a pathetic excuse for a poltergeist and given months worth of saturday detentions...

Meanwhile, Remus had twisted free of his friend's iron grip, beleatedly noticing a ladder that led upwards.. of course, the divination classroom! He was climbing up in moments, a hand pressing gently against the trapdoor and fumbling for the latch, opening it up and finally shoving it open. It took a moment for him to pull himself onto the carpet of the room, feet dangling over Sirius' head, who had caught on and followed suit, swinging himself up into the room with ease and forcibly closing the trapdoor.

A small _click_ caught the werewolf's attention after the thud had resided, and slender hands flew to the metal ring that allowed the door to swing open... It didn't budge.

"S-Sirius, it..." The brunette's voice wavered uncertainly as he tugged harder, "it's locked."

**I know, I _know_, insert mass groan here, an overused concept, but STILL. It's Remus/Sirius and they're locked in together, ect. ect.**

**Will continue when / if I get 6 reviews. Yes, I -do- have low standards.**


	2. In Which Remus Gets Rather Drunk

**Whoa, I never expected to get so many reviews in such a short period of time! Honestly, I'm flattered that you all like it. Hopefully this chapter won't be a dud or anything, but we shall see. XD Anywho, off we go!**

**… Don't question me about the Alohomora thing, it made sense about 25 seconds ago. And everything: and I mean everything makes sense at 4 in the morning. And might I add that, while wikipedia has Remus' birthday, it doesn't have Sirius'. Laaaame.**

_"S-Sirius, it..." The brunette's voice wavered uncertainly as he tugged harder, "it's locked."_

The other raised an eyebrow at this, turning from where he had been investigating a rather cloudy crystal ball that had been left out on a nearby table. "Yes, I know."

Remus looked up in vague confusion, sending Sirius that '_please_, be lying' look that the animagus dodged easily by stooping down to look even closer into the ball and commenting that he saw a rather irritated parrot within. Lupin, promptly ignoring his friend, practically exploded.

"What do you _mean_, that you know?!"

The ebony-haired Gryffindor shrugged, tossing his friend an indifferent glance from where he was stooped by the table. "I purposely shut it really hard, so the lock would shut properly. That way, Slughorn and Peeves won't find us."

Remus could feel his blood pressure rising as he stormed across the room and slammed his hands down on the table. "But then what about _us_?!"

"Us?" Black echoed, straightening up and looking at the amber-haired teenager quizzically. "I dunno, what _about_ us?"

The werewolf had to use a suitable amount of self-control not to start shouting, so he began to speak in a horribly tense, controlled voice. "And how do _we _get out? Alohomora won't work with a latch when we're on the _other side of the door_. It's made for keys and things and… Merlin, you're so thoughtless!" He turned around and ran shaking fingers through his hair, taking in a deep breath in a vain attempt to calm himself down. It didn't work. "Don't you remember when Professor Alain got locked in here? He was stuck here for _two whole days_. Even **he** couldn't get out; he had to scale down the castle wall-"

Sirius cut him off in moments, having strolled to where his friend was having a mental breakdown to place a hopefully 'comforting' hand on the other's shoulder, pointedly ignoring how he tensed immediately upon contact. "Remus, he was a squib and he was drunk. We'll just stay in here for a little while until we've made sure that nobody is going to catch us and then we'll just leave. It'll be _okay_. But…"

The hand left Remus' shoulder and he looked up, only to see Padfoot moving steadily through the room and tugging slightly on the handles of the large cupboards that sat behind Professor Alain's desk at the front of the class.

"But what?" the brunette werewolf tried to lead him into finishing his sentence and Sirius obliged thoughtlessly.

"One _does_ wonder if he left us any…"

The sentence, once again, died prematurely and Remus found himself getting irritated at the other's incessant trailing off. Black's coarse hands pried open the door and withdrew two full, if not slightly dusty, bottles of firewhisky, a triumphant grin across his lips.

"Look, Moony!"

Liquid the color of reddish-amber sloshed merrily in the bottles as the animagus brandished them without much thought, returning to Remus' side and pointedly ignoring the horrified look that crossed over his friend's face.

"I'm not 17 yet, Sirius," he stated, obviously trying to back out of the current situation using his infinite wisdom and knowledge of common wizard laws. It didn't work. Sirius, having hoisted himself up onto one of the squashy chintz armchairs with the bottles cradled in his arms as if they were newborns, scoffed at this.

"Well, I am. And, since I'm older than you, you're going to drink with me. Because I say so and you love me, _really_." Sirius, feeling rather smug, only grinned wider at his friend's irritated expression and, for a moment, internally questioned the slight red tinge that had crossed over the tips of Moony's ears. "One sec," Padfoot requested and stood, drawing a lighter out of his pocket and finding several sticks of incense before setting them into a little bronze pan that was obviously intended for the purpose. Silver and gold smoke cascaded from the little sticks, immediately omitting a pleasant, dreamy smell that reminded the werewolf of the beach. Sirius, upon sitting down again, gave him 'the' look and gave a lopsided, expectant grin.

Remus, taking a seat on the dark-purple cushion that was situated across from where Sirius was reclining, grudgingly held out one of his hands for a bottle, briefly wondering if it really _did_ burn like James claimed that it did. The lycanthrope had generally tried to stay away from alcohol, as he decided that someone with too many secrets should, but now… he was breaking his pact. And he was breaking it for Sirius.

Those grey eyes danced with amusement as he handed the drink across, the cork already popped from the long neck of the bottle as Remus awkwardly grabbed for it and fumbled, some of the alcohol slopping down and tingeing his sleeve a light brown for a moment. Mumbling a little to himself, he placed the bottle between his legs as he pulled out his wand and scourgified the stain away. Sirius, having averted his eyes a few moments ago, was already swallowing a large mouthful of his firewhisky and the werewolf followed suit. After all, there was practically nothing about him that Sirius didn't already know… right?

In fact, there were two things that Remus could think up, right off the bat, that Sirius didn't know, and hopefully would never discover. Both of which managed to stop him seconds before the firewhisky hit his thin lips, as if they were forcibly holding the bottle back from letting any of the potent drink into his body.

The ebony-haired teenager gave him a strange look, the light buzz of alcohol working its way into his mind as he took another draught, already grinning like a child before opening his birthday presents. Finally, after a moment or two of silence, Remus convinced his inner secrets to let him have a drink, and the cold glass collided with his mouth, the sharp taste nearly causing him to cough and splutter. _This_ was what Sirius and James treasured so?

But the animagus was looking encouragingly over at his friend, mumbling a "Good, innit?" in his direction and giving a smile that melted any resolve that had built in the werewolf's gut to a warm, sticky mass of goo (although, arguably, this might have been the firewhisky at work already). Sirius was corrupting him and he _loved_ it. So, returning the smile with a weak, nervous one of his own, he downed another mouthful of the swirling red-amber drink, coughing into the back of his hand as he swallowed. He could feel the back of his mind go fuzzy-- like a Muggle radio between stations, almost, and a strangely warm, contented feeling swelled in the pit of his stomach.

Attributing that feeling to another one of Sirius' smiles, he sat back into his little nest of pillows and merely watched the other in that strangely calm, silent way of his as he took in several more mouthfuls.

Sirius found that drinking with Remus John Lupin was a lot like trying to take a brick wall out to dinner. All he seemed to _do_ was take occasional sips of his firewhisky, cast strange, cryptic little glances over at him for some **insane** reason and grin like a complete idiot. And that, he had decided, he could handle. However, he could not handle the fact that the room was practically dead-silent, apart from the odd giggle and the slosh of drink in bottles.

"So." Black crashed through the silence awkwardly, trying to mow down the invisible, drunken fence between them. "You ever had this much alcohol before?" To Remus, Sirius' words didn't make sense for a few moments and he shook his head, smiling in that way that Sirius thought he always should, under the influence or not.

"Nope. At least… not with other people."

The dark-haired Gryffindor grinned a little. "Why, I'm flattered, Moony!" He answered back, obviously amused. So he was the first to introduce him to drinking in company? The fact that Remus trusted him that much, even after he had nearly sent Snape to his death, was incredibly comforting. The silence had reformed itself, but now into a comfortable pool between them. It could be rippled by the occasional clink of a bottle against the floor, but, Sirius thought, words could not break it so readily until he commanded them to do so.

"Talk? About anything?" He requested gently, his bottle half-full, the quiet cresting and turning into soft waves above them.

Sirius froze for a moment, trying to humor him by dragging up a topic… any topic at all.

"Girls. Let's talk about girls."

Remus sent him a murderous glare over the rim of his bottle and Sirius, choosing to ignore it, continued on as he lounged back in his armchair, fingers delicately tracing the cream-colored flowers and designs that had been embroidered there so long ago. "You know… uhm… you _do_ like someone, don't you?"

The werewolf stopped his glaring for a moment to bite on his lip, eyes darting down to the pillows that he was so comfortably situated upon, then to the little pan where the incense lay and the smoke billowed out in strange patterns. Amber eyes were moving _anywhere_ but where Sirius was sitting. Padfoot, once again turning a blind eye to his friend's strange mannerisms, sat forward and added a, "Well?" before Remus hesitantly nodded.

Aha. _Now_, he was getting somewhere. "What does she look like? What's she like? Do I know her?"

The werewolf swayed a little on the spot, placing his half-full bottle down on the carpeted floor with a resolute 'clunk' and taking a deep breath.

"Well, um… tall, beautiful… dark eyes and dark … hair… clever, kind of roguish… an amazing smile too, of course…"

Sirius had leaned forward a little, obviously interested. "As clever as me?"

He gave a half-laugh, trying to fight off the panicked tone that his thoughts were insistant on taking. "Yes… as clever as you are."

Padfoot looked semi-content with that for a moment and Remus almost collapsed back in his pillows from pure relief. "So, do I know her then? You _do_ know that, as best friend and fellow Marauder, I have to approve of her before you two do the horizontal cha-cha."

Remus' face was red before he managed to quietly correct, "tango, Pads. And y-yeah… it's someone that you know."

Sirius shrugged a little, giving out one of those strange half-smiles and moving down to pull off his shoes before he curled up on the gigantic chair, his head resting on the arm of it as he comfortably watched Remus squirm from nerves alone. The silence pool had smoothed once more, although he could feel words skimming over the surface. Gold and silver smoke was still wafting breezily across the room and some of it caught the fading sunshine that cascaded into their space, causing it to glimmer gently.

"I don't really have a chance anyway."

Remus was the first to push through the quiet this time, and he had slumped back almost hopelessly onto the pillows.

"What makes you say that?"

Thin fingers were pressing through light-brown hair as he let another sigh loose and turned to grab his firewhisky again, pressing the glass to his lips and making a slight show of it, as if he was trying to buy some time to explain himself without giving out his stupid, completely fruitless secret. Who was he kidding? Nothing good would come of this… and here he was, laden with the only two things in the entire _world_ that his best friend didn't know, and he was drunk enough to let them slip.

"I'm not good enough for him, it's just… I hate ruining good things and… I'm not even _attractive_!" He made a vague hand gesture, narrowly avoiding spilling firewhisky all over himself before he looked up at his friend, who had fallen uncharacteristically quiet.

Sirius was sitting on the edge of his seat, staring full force at him. And, for a moment, they just looked at each other before Sirius, very deliberately, repeated back into the stunned / confused silence, his face tinged a slight pink.

"Him?"

**… XDDD! This is _too_ much fun to write. Seriously. And sorry about not updating earlier, I just REALLY didn't expect THIRTEEN REVIEWS IN THE FIRST 24 HOURS! Honestly, you guys rock.**

**Uhm… 35 reviews in total, not separately, will be around when I get to updating. Or something. AND YES, A CLIFFHANGER. HAHHHH. (Yes, it's been changed because I haven't had this goddamn chapter up for over 12 hours and I -already- have 21 reviews? You people are -fantastic-! XD)**

**This chapter's line, "Talk? About anything?" line is dedicated to Jen. XD We do that too much, don't we? -loves upon-**

**Anyway, hope you liked this chapter, everyone! XD**


	3. In Which Sirius Asks Awkward Questions

**- …. Dear GOD, you people are completely insane. INSANE. In the membrane. Yes. I'm updating a liiiiiittle early this week, because I'm gonna be too dead on Tuesday afternoon / Wedsnesday to do anything.. So here's a chapter early, you lucky gits. I've had a lot of internal bickering about this chapter, but yes. XD;**

**By-the-way, the ties are dedicated to Jenni. Because ties _rock_. Actually, most of this is dedicated to Jen. -hearts- to you.**

"_Him?"_

Remus froze almost instantly, staring at Sirius in utter shock. He was blushing, obviously flustered. "I… um… oh Merlin!"

He was up and stumbling across the room in moments, his primary, instinctive urge to just _get away_ ringing through his mind, the fuzzy, pleasant after-effects of the firewhisky instantly gone. He'd spoiled it all, ruined a friendship by feeling more than he was supposed to. His heart was hammering viciously against his chest and he fell to his knees to pry helplessly at the trapdoor with trembling fingers. He could hear someone repeating his name, but the lycanthrope was rather busy with just _leaving_ at the moment…

"Remus… **Remus**!" One hand moved to rest on Moony's shoulder and he jerked, whipping his head around to look up at his friend. Eyes were wide and confused as he was gently tugged away from the still-locked trapdoor and pushed up against a nearby table. Remus swallowed heavily, refusing to meet Sirius' gaze as he lifted himself up to sit on the desk, topaz eyes flickering down to the pillows that littered the carpet.

"It's James, isn't it?"

Remus, despite his earlier oath not to look directly at the other Gryffindor, looked up abruptly, stunned for a moment and obviously caught off guard. Sirius, either not noticing or ignoring it, continued to speak. "He's the only one who's as clever as I am and he has dark hair…"

This thread of thought, the werewolf decided, was fairly logical, and he sighed, partially relieved that he hadn't guessed right off the bat, but slightly exasperated at the other's clueless attempt.

"It isn't James," he mumbled, wanting to fling himself out the window to escape such an excruciating conversation. "His eyes are wrong."

Sirius almost looked relieved, glad that Remus hadn't been stupid enough to fall for someone like James, but… then who was the werewolf talking about?

"What color are his eyes then?"

The other Marauder felt his stomach drop to the floor, his face a dark red as he paused and looked up at his best friend, ashamed of himself already as their eyes locked.

"Gray… like the sky before a storm," his voice was soft, almost resigned to the fact that he was practically handing out his worst secret (next to being a werewolf, of course) to him on a silver plate. Sirius was repeating the words over to himself, as if saying them once more would magically reveal the object of Remus' affections before him.

"And his hair?" He wasn't jealous. He _wasn't_.

"Dark," Remus answered shortly, not wanting to go into too much detail, lest Sirius find out that he was trying to convince Remus to describe himself.

Sirius leant back, shifting his weight from one foot to another as he thought. It wasn't James: Remus had already said so and James was still doggedly pursuing Lily with an infatuation that bordered on psychotic obsession. The only other person that came to mind though was a certain Severus Snape and _that _idea was terrifying, not to mention utterly preposterous. _Surely_ Remus had better taste than that? Not to mention that if it was Snape, Sirius would probably take it upon himself to climb up to the Astrology Tower and throw himself off without a shred of hesitation. He shuddered a little, which sharply drew Remus' attention back from the depths of his mind.

"Sirius?" he said softly, vaguely concerned. The animagus had scooted back to sit on the desk across from him, swinging his long legs thoughtfully before he finally spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Remus countered stupidly, trying to play it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

"That… that you like guys."

Remus had pulled his legs to his chest and buried his face into his knees. He mumbled something unintelligible and Sirius leaned forward. "Sorry?"

The werewolf coughed slightly, straightening up and swallowing before managing a quiet, "I… didn't know how you would… react."

Sirius' eyebrows raised as he pulled himself up all the way onto the desk, now sitting cross-legged and watching Remus nervously fidget with his tie and then his hands. There was a beat, an awkward pause that amplified the situation and seemed to make it weigh heavier in Sirius' mind. He didn't mind that Remus was gay; in fact, it was quite a relief that he was, considering the recent… thoughts that he'd been having about the light-brunette as of late. Not that he would ever admit it under pain of death, of course.

However, if Remus liked someone else, then maybe it wasn't such a good development anyway.

"Remus, I don't care about who you like. I just wish you trusted me enough to tell me who you've fallen for. That distant look that you get when you don't think anyone is looking… you're thinking about him, aren't you?"

He knew how to make Moony feel guilty in an instant and he finished with a rather sober look down at the desk that he was sitting on, not even glancing up to see if it had worked.

It did.

Remus had slowly pulled himself to his feet, eyes downcast as he swallowed the lump in the back of his throat, absently noting that it didn't go away, but instead, it seemed to obstruct his breathing even more. A few more steps and he was standing before Padfoot. This was so utterly _foolish_ of him...

"It's you."

Sirius' slate eyes snapped up from investigating the tabletop, meeting Remus' determined gaze with confusion. "What?"

But Remus ignored his reaction, placing his hands on Sirius' knees and leaning up, gently pressing his lips against those of his best friend.

There was no going back.

The grip on Sirius' legs tightened slightly as he pulled back, those gray eyes looking slightly dazed for a moment as Remus stood in front of him, nervously (and maybe a little drunkenly?) awaiting judgment. Light brown hair was in his eyes and the dimming light from the windows partially hid the werewolf's expression. It was almost dusk. Remus jerked back slightly from being almost nose-to-nose with the other Marauder, his face a shameful color of crimson. God, he was such an _idiot_! Feet began to automatically move back to his safety net- his half-full bottle of firewhisky that, if Moony had any luck, would hopefully give him alcohol poisioning in the next 15 seconds or less...

But he stopped, mid-step.

Sirius' hand had snaked out to catch onto the other Gryffindor's tie, pulling him back and nearly strangling him in the process of doing so, and he had risen to his knees on the table, just... staring at him. The lycanthrope cringed slightly, expecting an onslaught of insults, declarations of a broken friendship, _anything_ but this silence and the uncomfortable position that he was methodically tugged into by the animagus' tight grip on his clothes.

And, pulling the tie even closer to him which caused the werewolf to stumble a little, Sirius caught the other's lips with his own, a series of little, seperate kisses in a rhythm that Remus easily fell into, and without any hesitation. When they parted, both of their faces were red, although the light brunette's was a darker shade than Padfoot's.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Moony asked breathlessly, his heart thumping determinedly at his chest as his eyes batted open once more.

Remus' hands had fallen back to the other Marauder's knees, and he could taste the alcohol that Sirius had been drinking earlier on his lips and he could feel the animagus' breath on his skin from where he was standing.

"Tell you what?"

"That you liked me."

Sirius' legs swung down from the desk, swaying over the floor for a moment before he let his feet hit the carpet, fingers relinquishing the hold on Remus' tie almost relunctantly as he grinned. "Probably for the same reason that you didn't tell me. And, mind you, this is a new development, Moony. I don't quite know what I'm feeling right now, but I like it."

Remus let out a soft, "Oh," and managed a smile, backing up a little as the other stood. "So... you're giving me a chance?"

He laughed airily, stretching a little and looking rather satisfied with himself. "When _haven't_ I given you a chance?"

The werewolf's grin broadened a little and he shrugged almost carelessly, following Sirius to the mound of pillows that he'd been sitting in just a while ago and plopping down next to him before scooping up his bottle of firewhisky and offering it to the other. Padfoot, graciously accepting, took a draught before lowering the bottle and capturing Remus' lips once more. The burning sensation that he got, he decided, couldn't be _completely _attributed to the alcohol...

Neither of them noticed the bolt sliding to one side with a soft click, and neither of them noticed two pairs of rather-large eyes (hazel and pale-blue) staring right at them from underneath an invisibility cloak in complete shock.

**Bwam-bwam-bwaaaam. XD**

**Okay, this was a relatively hard chapter to write, seeing as I wanted to keep it realistic (or as much as a Marauders fic can be) and in character, but yes.**

**And yeeees. Thanks to Green and Jen for vaguely telling-me-what-not-to-do. Or something. Yes.**

**Next chapter will come when I don't have difficulty spelling words that're longer than 2 letters. Or when I get 45-50 reviews. Or when pigs sprout wings and promptly use them to aid the clock-manufacturing elephants that live in Sweden. Or maaaybe when I catch up on sleep. Either way, more is coming. ;D**

**Also, I've noted that I constantly say / sing things in a weird opera voice when I get really into something. I blame the MISTAAAAAKE! guy from Scrubs. Fully.**

**Oh, and, on a totally semi-related note, I drew really bad art for this. Because I wanted to. So there. The link is on my main profile if you wanna see it, because FF hates me. XD;**


	4. In Which James States The Obvious

**I'm still a little comatose / dead, but my Easter holiday is in the process of... existing, so that should (hopefully) mean that the updates are more with less time between. Or whatever. I've no idea. Either way, thanks for the reviews and let's roll!**

_Neither of them noticed the bolt sliding to one side with a soft click, and neither of them noticed two pairs of rather-large eyes (hazel and pale-blue) staring right at them from underneath an invisibility cloak in complete shock._

Remus Lupin was, for once, completely off-guard. His body was lax as Sirius continued to explore the lycanthrope's mouth and his skin, one hand slowly moving up Moony's shirt, fingers lightly tracing over the expanses of scars that crisscrossed over each other there…

Wormtail squirmed a little under the invisibility cloak, pale blue eyes forcing themselves shut against the image of Padfoot and _Moony_… James cringed slightly at the moan (which was obviously courtesy of Remus), groping around blindly for the sleeve of Peter's jumper before he finally found the cloth and tugged. Hard.

The smallest Marauder let out a stifled yelp and jolted forward, the cloak falling off of most of his upper body. James suddenly found the entire weight of the trapdoor on him and he grunted slightly, his arms buckling under the new burden.

Sirius' hands had stopped moving under Moony's shirt and now both Black and Lupin were staring, wide-eyed at Peter's disembodied head, neck and half of his shoulder. Remus' face was dark red and Sirius, annoyed at being interrupted, was glaring right at the partially open trapdoor.

"Prongs."

James let out a shaky breath, shoving the door backwards and swinging himself up onto the divination tower's floor, letting the cloak slide down onto the carpet, completely revealing himself. Peter followed suit, standing by Potter's side and trying not to stare explicitly as Remus shakily removed Sirius' hand from up his shirt, automatically straightening his tie. Padfoot, not fazed in the slightest, sat up and very openly placed a hand on the other Marauder's knee. It was a challenge, and James knew it.

There was an almost pregnant pause as the Marauders seemed to just bask in the awkward silence. Remus and Peter were both intent on looking away from the scene while Sirius and James were attempting to stare each other down. Finally, Peter cut into the quiet by pulling out a scrap of parchment and brandishing it, trying to diffuse the awkward pause by helpfully announcing that they had used the map to find them when they'd been away for several hours and that the prank had gone rather well.

The werewolf, desperately trying to play along, said that he was glad that nobody had been caught and Prongs merely grunted in affirmation. Sirius remained silent, squeezing Remus' knee in a slightly comforting notion that did not go unnoticed by James.

"How long have you two..." He paused rather awkwardly, brushing short black hair back with one calloused hand, guiltily averting his eyes from the 'couple'.

"About ten minutes, actually," Sirius spoke up, frowning a little at his best friend and scooting closer to the light brunette, who seemed slightly uncomfortable due to the eyes that were indirectly watching them. Remus J. Lupin was _not_ an exhibitionist.

"Well... congratulations?" Peter tried, which drew a silent thank you and a wry smile from the lycanthrope's lips, but a deeper frown from Prongs.

"Moony?"

Remus looked up at the dark-haired male beside him, another brief smile escaping him as Sirius gave him a tiny kiss on the forehead and stood up, pulling the smaller Marauder along with him.

"How about you and Peter go down to the common room?"

Remus blinked almost owl-like up at Padfoot, astonished at the very suggestion.

"_No._ We're the bloody Marauders, if anyone has anything to say, we'll damn well say it here and now. With _nobody_ excluded."

The werewolf had moved away from Sirius' touch and this time, it wasn't only because of discomfort but annoyance as well. Potter was silent, eyes breaking from the vicious glare that he'd been sending in his best friend's direction before he finally spoke, his voice shaking with repressed anger.

"Remus is **not** a girl."

This earned him a very blank look from Peter, a scowl from Sirius and a light blush from Remus before he straightened up, swaying on the spot for a moment before he brought his hands together. The applause echoed almost eerily through the classroom, forcing Peter to jerk out of his inner thoughts and stare right at the Marauder in question.

"Stunning observation, James. Next, are you going to point out my 'suspicious' disappearances every full moon or the fact that I've never had a girlfriend?"

He strode across the room to brood angrily by the window, thrusting it open and coughing as a storm of dust clouded around him, waving off the concerned look that Sirius tossed him with an air of aggravated contempt.

"What I _mean_ is... Sirius, you can't treat him like the girls that you keep going out with, you can't just... randomly drop him when you get bored, he's one of _us_ and..." he paused, his voice going a little lower, almost husky, "I'd kill you with my bare hands if you ever did that to him. You won't even have time to grab for your wand." Hazel eyes were glaring at Sirius with an intensity that Peter had never seen, except for when he was looking at Snivellus. Remus, having turned away from the window, was also astounded and in the process of staring, slack-jawed, at the admission.

Sirius suddenly found himself in a very awkward situation. Commitment, and this was a common fact when it came to how he worked, was far from his forte. His longest relationship had lasted for about a week and a half with a Ravenclaw girl, and only because she would go insane, crying and sobbing and sniffling all over him when he tried to let her down easy. He hadn't really given much thought as to how long he and Remus would last- hell, he hadn't even asked the werewolf out yet, and he also hadn't thought about the possible effects that it would have on _them_, as a group of friends. One hand ran over his chin, then through his hair before it rested at the back of his neck. _Damnit_, he couldn't think of what to say... He could feel everyone's eyes upon him and it weighed heavy against his thoughts as he stood there and stared at the dish of incense that he'd lit earlier on.

"N... No, I won't treat him like them, he's different," he stumbled to get the words out, to choose the right ones to calm all three of them down at the same time. James didn't look convinced, although Remus had given up his post at the window to stand by Padfoot's side again, still looking a little apprehensive, but partially relieved at the same time.

"Well, um... Let's go back to the dorms, then?" Peter's voice broke through with an interestingly high amount of optimism, "Now that that's settled... Bring the bottles, right?" One hand reached down to grab the invisibility cloak, the other checking to make sure that the Map was still stashed safely in his pocket. "Come on, Prongs?"

Prongs snorted a little, although Peter knew that it wasn't in his direction, and followed the shortest Marauder down the ladder, leaving the trapdoor open for Remus and Sirius. Footsteps of a very relieved Wormtail and an irritated Prongs started down the stairs and gradually faded away.

Remus stayed silent before he was sure that the two were gone. "I... I don't want this to go on if it'll only last a few days. If you'll get tired of me so quickly."

"No, no, I won't. I'm just... still a little unsure about it," One hand moved up to brush against Remus' jaw, tilting his head up to where their eyes met before continuing, "Maybe you and I should wait a bit? Figure things out first before we do anything that we might regret."

Moony nodded almost dazedly, a quiet, "Mmn," leaving him. So they weren't together. He could handle that- it'd be no different from before the prank, right?

... Right?

A light sigh left him as he moved away from Sirius' touch for at least the hundredth time, ignoring the puzzled look that Padfoot gave him as he bent down to pick up his firewhiskey and made his way down to the Gryffindor common room, leaving a slightly confused Sirius Black behind.

**HAH, NO SEX FOR YOU. ... Yet. It'll come later, I promise, I proooomise. But, as you can tell, this is -not- a one-shot and therefore you have to wait for the smut. Because plots are amazing. And yeah. I was going to put in a really poorly placed Princess Bride quote, just to spite you all, but...**

**... Yes.**

**65-70 reviews is when I'm gonna update next. Poor Sirius! He seems to be messing things up even worse... (10 reviews in 12 hours or so? Dear god, I need to start working! XD)**


	5. In Which Prongs Resolves A Problem

**Alright, I just want to clarify something here before I continue.**

**There will not be mpreg in my story. Yes, it's a magical world out there, but magic doesn't cross with science/biology/whatever. XDDD Well, not very well, at least.**

**Don't fret, you'll still get your smut... just no babies afterwards, yes? XD**

**Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad you all liked protective!James! and I am actually strangely fond of Peter for some insane reason, so you shan't be getting any Peter-bashing from me. After all, he HAD to be an amazing / great person when he was a Marauder -- otherwise, why would Sirius mention that he would have died for him? That all of them would have died for him? Because I _hate_ it when people are like, "PETUR WAZNT IN DIS STORIE BCUZ HE WUZ BUZY TLKING 2 SNAPE & PLTTING DEIR DOWNFAL LMAOLMAO LMAOI'MADUMBASS LMAOLMAO LMAO!!1111!! oneoneone!!111!!" or the Marauders just _ignoring_ him and _despising_ him for no apparent reason. SERIOUSLY, people, he was their _friend_ for a reason until he was pretty much terrified into following Voldemort's regime and betraying James and Lily. If they thought of him like 'eh, he's okay', then he wouldn't have been a Marauder...**

**This chapter is decidedly tough, because I actually had to keep _reminding_ myself that I wasn't going to make this some weird sort of greek tragedy without the greekness and the constant dying. But YES, shall not ramble any further, XD. So, now! On with the story!**

_A light sigh left him as he moved away from Sirius' touch for at least the hundredth time, ignoring the puzzled look that Padfoot gave him as he bent down to pick up his firewhiskey and made his way down to the Gryffindor common room, leaving a slightly confused Sirius Black behind._

The rest of the evening was uneventful, apart from a slight lapse in the silence when Lily stormed up to their dorm and began to screech at James-- that is, until she realized that he hardly reacted at all and seemed more like an empty shell than the perverted Marauder that she knew so well. In fact, everyone, (apart from Peter, who was blissfully watching the illustrations in one of his Quidditch books fight over a quaffle endlessly), seemed... worn out.

Remus, having cast a _silencio_ charm across his drapings, was currently in the midst of having a full-blown mental breakdown, and James was practically staring right _through_ Lily, which was honestly something that she'd never experienced before in her years of knowing the dark-haired seeker.

Sirius, forlornly clutching his bottle of firewhisky, came up right behind Lily and she jerked, red hair swaying as she turned around to stare directly into his hollow, gray eyes.

It was as if someone had _died_, she decided, ignoring how he looked right past her and into his dorm, immediately glancing towards the drawn curtains of Remus' four-poster bed, a deep sigh passing through him as he came in, placed the firewhisky by Potter's trunk at the foot of his bed and collapsed onto his mattress.

Not a single word was exchanged.

Bright green eyes blinked slightly as she stared at them, all lost in their own miserable thoughts, and she silently turned to leave, deciding that she would get Remus to tell her what happened later.

Several days passed after the falling out between James, Sirius and Remus. Peter seemed to be the only neutral party remaining, who would speak cheerfully to either of the three Marauders when they approached him, who would make sure that Remus wouldn't 'forget' to eat, who would explain to Lily that they just 'needed time' whenever she attempted to approach... It was almost motherly, in a slightly annoying way.

Remus, at the moment, was completely ignoring Padfoot for all he was worth, refusing to make eye-contact, biting onto the inside of his lip harshly whenever Sirius spoke. The full moon came and went, but the Wolf stayed away from the dog as well, choosing instead to stay within the Shrieking Shack and cause general destruction to the furniture that he'd summoned there beforehand. When Madam Pomfrey came to check on him in the morning, she found him collapsed in a corner of the shack, bruised and bleeding with the furniture in shambles around him. He was completely oblivious to the big, black dog that had sat outside of the Whomping Willow all night, lying there in the cold and listening to his friend scream his frustration and anguish to the moon, but even Padfoot was not daring enough to enter the shack.

New scars appeared after that transformation; most of which he would never show to anyone apart from the most notable, which were the two slashes across the bridge of his nose that, with the aid of Madam Pomfrey, had healed rather well, but had not faded completely. None of the other Marauders had commented on this new addition to his appearance, despite the fact that he wished they had.

Finally, on the seventh day, Lily managed to catch Remus just as he was leaving the Great Hall from breakfast. He was worn out, she could tell that much from simply looking at the bags under his eyes, and after a few minutes of quiet persuasion, he found himself steered in the direction of the closest vacated classroom.

"Start from the beginning," he had been scooted up to sit on one of the empty desks, his legs swinging as he waited for her to take a seat, "and when you come to the end, stop."

Slender hands rubbed at topaz eyes and he let out a deep, worn sigh, swallowing a little before he managed to clear his throat and begin to speak.

"Lily, I... well... I'm in love with Sirius."

The redhead let out a slow nod, coaxing him onward gently with an expectant look in her eyes. For a moment, he didn't say anything, and she took that as an invitation of sorts to speak.

"Well, does he know?" She tried, her voice wavering hopefully in the silence, an anxious little frown passing over her lips which only deepened when the werewolf shook his head. "Well... maybe-"

She was cut off with a glare from the light-brunette and she held her tongue as he finally spoke up.

"No, he doesn't. He wouldn't. Haven't you ever noticed how he refuses to tie himself down to one person for over three days? I'd... I'd be setting myself up to be used and I'd ruin the Marauders by trying." Remus let out an aggravated sigh, ignoring the sympathetic look that Lily cast him. "Even _James_ knows it... that Sirius isn't going to commit and that it isn't worth the effort. He got so angry about it and for a while and I was mad at him too until I realized that he was doing it out of concern rather than..."

"Spite?" Lily tried gently, and Remus nodded a little, hands fidgeting in his lap.

"But you _can't _tell him anything that I just told you- it's... It's my battle. Yes, I'm losing, yes, I'm tearing myself apart, but I don't need help or interference."

Pulling himself to his feet, he allowed himself a deep sigh before he stretched, rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands. "Thanks, Lily, for hearing me out, but this is just something that I have to do."

And before Evans could get ahold of the situation, Remus was gone again, the door clicking shut silently behind him.

That evening, as everyone-but-Peter suffered through an awkward dinner in the Great Hall, James decided that something, anything, had to be done. So finally, after much thought, he took the least idiotic idea that he'd managed to think up to reform the Marauders and stood up, slamming his hands down on the table and making his plate quiver a little with the movement.

"Alright, this is stupid."

Three pairs of eyes were fixed on the Seeker now, (four, including the very discreet side-glances that Lily was tossing over at them) and, for a moment, he faltered and went quiet before he realized that this wasn't just going to go away if he sat back down and continued to make poorly sculpted mashed-potato renditions of Evans's face.

"We just... need to put this behind us and start over as friends."

Peter blinked a little, edging forward on the bench to sit on his legs, which made him seem taller than he really was. "...What?"

"Just.. um... Well... Hi! My name is James Potter, I'm a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and I will someday be _so_ rich and _so_ famous that Snape will have no choice but to take out my rubbish bins as his last chance at a job. I will also, someday, get married to Lily Evans, who I _know_ is listening with an intense look of adoration plastered all over her pretty face."

The redhead in question scoffed rather loudly and turned back to her pumpkin juice, barely hiding a smile. "You _wish_."

"That I do, that I do. And? What's your name, oh cheerful-looking man before me?"

Sirius, who had a face long enough to rival that of a horse, looked up with slight disbelief before he too allowed himself to fall into the facade.

"Me? Why, I'm Sirius Black, troublemaker extraordinare, with handsomely rugged looks that _nobody _can resist."

Remus allowed himself a frown, slumping down a little further at his place, head in his hands.

"And you, oh gorgeous creature before me?"

The lycanthrope jumped a little, amber eyes flitting up to look at Sirius, who was, instead, gesturing over in Wormtail's direction. Lupin frowned, looking resolutely down at his goblet of water and trying to calm his thudding heart.

"Peter Pettigrew, the future husband / passionate lover of none other than Sara Cress and the sneakiest, cleverest Gryffindor ever to exist... although, I could do with some rugged good looks, if Mr. Black wishes to share them..."

His voice trailed off hopefully and Sirius didn't even hesitate to snort a little. "Keep dreaming, Wormtail. Now, you look awfully familiar..."

Gray eyes had turned to look straight over at the light-brunette and Remus barely held back a flush- this was the first time that Sirius had spoken directly to him since they had been locked into the divination classroom...

Lupin sat up a little, swallowing and extending his hand for Sirius to shake, hating how fast his heart was beating as soon as Padfoot clasped it firmly and then, much too soon, let go.

"Remus John Lupin, smarter than all three of you put together... which vaguely works, seeing as how I have to have _something_ going for me," his voice wasn't nearly as energetic or chipper as he had wished, but it was as close as he could get. Choosing not to acknowledge the air of concern that practically radiated from Sirius, he faked a smile and took a bite of his potato, allowing James to look exuberantly pleased with himself for apparently 'resolving' a problem.

It wasn't long before they were back in the common room, trying desperately to pretend that things were back to normal. Apart from the occasional worried glances from Prongs and Padfoot, things did seem to be nothing out of the ordinary.

Remus was curled up by the fire in his usual chair, reading a book but, at the same time, his mind wasn't registering any of the words. He would flip the pages sometimes, when he felt someone's gaze upon him, but overall, his eyes seemed to be glazed over and distracted rather than how they usually were when he read. His thoughts were obviously somewhere else...

_Fingers had curled around the staircase railing, trailing along with the sanded wood lightly as he descended steadily, one foot after another with almost precise steps. Sirius was there at the foot of the stairs, arm already extended, eyes joyful and expectant as the werewolf finally made it to his side and linked arms with the dark-haired Marauder. It was night, the sun had only just set over the lake, and he could feel his face go crimson as the boy next to him leant down and planted a small kiss on his hairline._

_They were out of the common room, through the portrait and down several flights of stairs, talking quietly to eachother, laughing comfortably as they bantered back and forth. The chemistry between them was amazingly lax, yet with every grin and every smirk, Moony could feel his stomach flutter and soar._

_It was completely dark now as they emerged onto the grounds, and they walked a little ways before Sirius took him into his arms and caught the other's lips with his own. Remus, promptly melting into the touch, returned the pressure that he was so readily given, his arms twining around the animagus' back and pulling him a little closer..._

_Then, he jerked, eyes flying open only to realize one thing. The moon... the moon was full and rising steadily, and Padfoot was still kissing him with reckless abandon... He could feel his body prickling, his spine twisting and his muscles tensing as he writhed in the other's arms, his head practically splitting from the pressure of the moon. His entire body tensed as he fell in a heap to the dewy grass beneath them and Sirius watched with wide eyes, frozen as he slowly backed away from the smaller Marauder. Fur was bristling and emerging from otherwise pale, hairless skin, his clothes were ripping as he grew in proportion, nose turned into a snout, lips went black and his eyes... his eyes had changed from their usually placid topaz color to a fierce, cruel shade of coal black. Fingernails, which he usually chewed on in class or when he was nervous had lengthened into talons and he was doubled over in pain, screaming, screaming..._

_Sirius was at the lake's edge now, those gray eyes widened in... was it disgust or fear? One arm had moved to smear the werewolf's taste off of his lips and Remus could feel indignant anger rising in his body and he lunged forward, knocking Sirius into the water and holding him there by his neck. Nothing could have possibly erased that look from his mind and he was slashing, ripping with his claws, biting..._

"Remus! **Remus**!"

His book had fallen from his lap and his throat hurt, amber eyes flicking open only to see Sirius' face so very close to his own. Trying to back up to no avail, his movements were that of a frightened animal, jerky and quivering. He was shaking, badly, and tears were cresting at the corners of his eyes to slide down his face unchecked.

"You... are you okay?"

The other Marauder didn't look repulsed or terrified, he looked concerned, and he could feel his breathing slow down and his strange combination of sobbing and sniffling subsiding as Padfoot fell to his knees and pulled the smaller lycanthrope into a bearhug.

"It's alright, it's alright... You'll be fine."

Sated by how Sirius was rubbing his back soothingly and mumbling refrains of "It'll be alright," he slumped forward into the other's arms. Breathing _hurt_ for some insane reason, and he could hear everyone speaking around him as if from a distance about what had happened, and he could feel Black's chest rumbling as he spoke softly over to Peter and Wormtail replied before...

"Remus, can you stand?"

Moony looked up, almost dazedly, as his mind took an extra few seconds to clear itself of the fog that had accumulated there before he nodded, reluctantly pulling away from Padfoot's warmth and staggering to his feet, tears in the process of drying on his skin.

Allowing himself to take a deep, shaky breath, he began to move towards their dormitory, gladly taking Sirius' help rather than James or Peter's and supporting himself by leaning heavily on the Marauder's shoulder. It didn't take much longer until he was slipping out of his shoes and collapsing into his four-poster, and he was out like a light, ignorant to the overly-fond look that Padfoot gave him before the curtains shut.

**Yaaaaaaay, 5th chapter is done. Victory! Much thanks to Jayneface, my newly acquired beta and everyone who has listened to me ramble incessantly about Peter's 're-introduction' and the like. XD Still trying to keep this... not-very-cliche and as in-character as I can get it, so yes. I didn't want Lily to be Remus' crutch, so ... yes. XD He's strong, he can take care of himself, don't you think?**

**By the way, and I found this vaguely amusing, when I was telling my betaface that I was doing a dream/nightmare sequence, she was all (COUGHSCRUBSRIPOFFCOUGH) and I cracked up because... well, it's SCRUBS. XD**

**"despite your ability to switch seamlessly between male and female genitalia..."**

**"HMMM... (drifts off)"**

**"(smack) Newbie, snap out of it."**

**XDDD ... yes. Ignore me, ahahahah.**

**85-95 reviews'll be around when I update next, and sorry for taking a little longer, XD! I tried to be on time, but... yeah, ahahah. Until next time, TTFN:D (Oh, had to change the number AGAIN because, believe it or not, I -do- have coursework to do before next Monday, XD! Do forgive, really.)**


	6. In Which A Quidditch Match Takes Place

**First off, I'd like to apologize for the few months of wait. I've been going through some tough shit in real life and college alike, and that happens to be my priority rather than this fic. Secondly, I lost my plot sheet and this is _kind of_ winging it, so… yes. It might / probably will suck. Sorry guys! Not to mention that I've never written scenes like this before, so I might have gotten some facts wrong and whatnot. The last names for the other players Zeller, Coote, Towler, Ackerly, ect. were taken from minor HP characters I made the assumption that their parents were in the same houses as they are, and they are _not_ my original names or... whatever.**

**I would also like to add that I was horribly tempted to name this chapter 'In Which Lily Has Amusing Socks'. ... Yes, I am done. XD**

_It didn't take much longer until he was slipping out of his shoes and collapsing into his four-poster, and he was out like a light, ignorant to the overly-fond look that Padfoot gave him before the curtains shut._

It was considerably late in the morning when Remus awoke – and that was quite irregular for his usual sleeping habits. After all, he would normally be awake with his bed made and in the shower long before any of the other Marauders blinked open their sleep-fogged eyes. James, Sirius and Peter had long since gone down for breakfast, opting to let Moony sleep a little.

However, Remus wasn't quite prepared to open his unbearably heavy eyelids, choosing instead to lie there peacefully for a moment and allowing his thoughts to drift from one subject to another. The essay that he'd finished yesterday still needed to be looked over and expanded on, he needed to feed that fifth year's cat while she was in the hospital wing and… he knew he was forgetting something or another…

Sitting up, he wearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the back of his hands and allowed himself an uncharacteristic yawn before cracking his knuckles lazily and bringing his bare feet to the cold wooden floor.

"C'mon, Lupin, got things to do today – can't laze around in bed…" he chided himself, stretching his arms up to the ceiling and falling to his knees to sift through the trunk at the foot of his bed. Sighing softly, he began to dig through the neatly folded clothes inside, looking for something suitable to wear…

"I should say not, Moony!"

Remus jolted up, topaz eyes widening a little as a hand came down to clap him jovially on the shoulder. A startled yelp left the brunette as the lid of his trunk, in reaction to the sudden movement, crashed down on his wrists with no warning.

"Dammit!"

The hand was off of his shoulder in seconds as the werewolf shoved the heavy wood off his hands, snatching them back and rubbing his wrists. A disapproving frown grew at the slight red marks that had just started to show on his skin before the werewolf gave a dry laugh.

"Well, good morning to you too, Sirius."

Sirius, who was in the process of glaring violently at Remus' trunk, had leant over to grab one of the werewolf's hands, inspecting his wrists for a moment. He kindly pretended not to notice the flush that had spread across his friend's cheeks before letting go and straightening up a little.

"You slept in, so I brought you some toast and hot chocolate – you have to eat it quickly though if you're going to come to the match…"

Lupin, still a little dazed, blinked slightly, looking up at Sirius only to absently mutter the word 'match' to himself several times as he reopened his trunk to dig around for clothes again.

"The Quidditch match! You _said_ that you'd come and cheer for me and James, remember?" The Animagus had visibly deflated, his features falling into a disappointed frown that Remus completely missed as he pulled a plain white shirt that looked far too big for him and a spare pair of dark trousers out from the confines of his trunk.

"Oh? Ah, right. Yes, I remember, just let me get dressed and you can go on ahead, okay?"

"Are you su—"

All thought processes in Sirius' mind ground to a screeching halt as his companion began to undo his nightshirt, slender fingers fumbling with the little plastic buttons, his chin pressed against his chest.

Wrenching his eyes away from the newly exposed pale skin and the faded, jagged scars that wove their way intricately across his friend's body, Sirius swallowed heavily and turned around to stare at the door with a newfound intensity, looking, but not really _seeing_.

"Go on ahead; I'll cheer for you, okay?"

Padfoot nodded, turning to cast an appreciative smile and nod at Remus before realizing that the lycanthrope was slowly beginning to shrug off his pyjama pants...

Sirius was out of the room faster than a Knarl on fire, his hurried footsteps echoing out through the halls, completely missing the knowing smirk that spread across Remus' lips as he continued to change out of his pyjamas.

The sun was getting high and the shadows beneath the trees were rapidly disappearing as countless students made their ways out to the Quidditch Pitch, joking and talking excitedly amongst themselves. Some were wearing their house's colors, others were carrying banners and flags to show support for their respective sides. Blue, gold, silver and red seemed to be the presiding colors of the day and despite the alarming amounts of 'house pride', the tensions weren't nearly as high as they could have been. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had always been on good terms with one another and this wasn't taken nearly as seriously as a match against Slytherin would have been.

Better yet, the weather seemed to favor their upcoming match. With summer fast approaching, the weather had gotten significantly warmer and the rains less frequent. However, this gradual change was definitely appreciated, even if it was at the cost of the normally rich green sheen of the trees and grass.

Remus, having changed into his usual clothes (sans tie, for once), had easily melted into the throng of late arrivals, thin fingers moving to brush the light brown hair out of his eyes as he followed the crowd. The players had already launched their brooms skywards to warm up and Sirius, to his knowledge, was not in his eyesight yet... Not that he had been looking _already_; of course...

An arm latched onto his shoulder, jerking the werewolf from his reveries as a certain Miss Evans appeared from out of the blue to stride beside him. Sometimes, Remus decided, it was hard to even believe that she had landed the Head Girl position- that utterly mischievous grin that she occasionally had across her thin lips was such a polar opposite from what teachers had come to expect from the girl on a daily basis after all.

Lily, being Head Girl, had reluctantly taken the recent advice of one of her more _enthusiastic_ professors to participate more in her House activities. To her vexation, one of the suggestions put forward happened to be dressing up for any sort of Gryffindor oriented occasion and even though she had protested, her appearance showed _exactly _who had won that battle. A red and gold shawl happened to be draped across her shoulders and more likely than not, doing absolutely nothing but making the daytime heat more miserable. She had worn her uniform tie along with a festive-looking pair of socks that chanted out things such as "_Perseverance is the key to victory!_" every few moments in a chirpy voice. Four rather smeared streaks of red and gold paint – two on each cheek, were the final touches on an obviously unwilling Lily Evans. Remus, of course, was kind enough not to comment on her 'decorations'.

The lycanthrope wasn't surprised when they launched into the familiar pleasantries that came with speaking to a casual friend – how are you, what did you think of that essay, how do you think Ravenclaw's new seeker will fare against Gryffindor's, have you found out how to brew that potion for Slughorn's assignment...

"Have you told him yet?"

"Excuse me?" Remus had already seated himself on one of the familiar wooden benches, already rolling his perfectly white sleeves up to his upper arms – he had to keep himself in check and resist pulling them completely up to his shoulders for fear of exposing an old scar...

"You know, Remus..." She settled down next to the Marauder with all the grace of a swan upon its nest, ignoring James' obnoxious catcalls about 'her' choice of clothing from high above and dropping her voice to a low whisper, "_Sirius_." Her shawl had settled around her waist, one end trailing on the dusty floorboards, the other resting in her lap for well-kept fingernails to toy with idly as she awaited the other's response.

Remus, who had momentarily forgotten about his previous chat with Lily, felt the back of his neck go slightly pink, topaz eyes moving to the worn floor beneath their feet bashfully.

"_Never say die, strong Gryffindors!_"

"No, then. Well, you _have _to sort this out – you're just tormenting yourself by drawing all this out! There's no reason to do _that_." There was a short pause before Evans allowed herself an irate sigh. "It's not as if anything is holding you back." Her green eyes had flitted upwards to rest upon James' constant flipping and spiralling figure as it darted through the cobalt sky.

"I beg to differ. I think you'd find that there is."

"Oh?" Lily's eyes were trained on Potter's form as he flawlessly dodged a quaffle that had been chucked in his general direction, laughing and shouting something to one of his teammates.

The werewolf rolled his eyes slightly, leaning over to drape one arm around his friend's shoulders in a friendly show of affection. "And you happen to be staring at him as we speak."

Evans jolted slightly in her seat as she caught herself, her face going an indignant red that quite matched her house colors. "I wasn't _staring_, I was mentally criticising his form. And **I** know why you aren't telling him. You're _scared_."

"_Cowardice is unheard of in the Lion's house! Pluck and vigour are what draw us to __inevitable __success!_"

Remus paused, a thin eyebrow arching upwards. "If you're trying to intimidate me into telling him, it won't work."

"Oh, you'll tell him. You can't last like this forever."

The Quidditch players had landed smoothly on the pitch, straddling their brooms, staring expectantly at the referee as he released the balls... Three, two, one and the quaffle was thrown into the air and both Lily and Remus rose to their feet, watching as the blurs of red and blue streaked off into the sky after their respective targets.

**"Potter gains the first catch of the game in this lively match against Ravenclaw- passes it off to Towler without any trouble at all – ohh, the quaffle has been intercepted by Ackerly of the Ravenclaw side!**** I have a good feeling about this game..."**

Remus had fallen silent again, his eyes raking through the almost completely clear sky for that familiar, dark-haired Marauder that he knew so well, a smile lighting up his face as soon as he came into view, bat in hand. Sirius had recently been recruited as a Beater by the Captain of the Gryffindor team and although he was more adept at passing and catching the quaffle with James, he had accepted the position in a heartbeat. After all, why _wouldn't_ he willingly take on a position that would put him in the spotlight before his hundreds of adoring fans?

**"Ackerly has passed to Zeller who has started the quick ascent of the pitch towards Gryffindor's goal posts—Ah, did you see** _that?_ **Towler has snagged the ball back into Gryffindor possession in a **_fantastic_** play, chucking it over to Coote without even giving the Ravenclaw chasers a second glance! Potter is standing by to receive..."**

However, Remus' eyes were not on the main action but on the Animagus that was soaring through the sky with effortless technique that only came with years of practicing. Swinging the bat over his shoulder with practiced ease, Sirius leaned forward into his broom and pressed himself down to the wooden handle as he flashed across the field in a maroon streak. The bat was lifted only to pummel an errant bludger away from one of the more distracted Gryffindor Chasers who rewarded him with a grateful smile before zooming off to catch up with the rest of the game. Sirius, in turn, laughed none-too-modestly and performed a quick combination of a backflip and a flaunting sort of barrel roll, coaxing a cheer from the Gryffindor stands as he waved over in Evan's and Lupin's direction.

**"And there's Black,**** probably**** showing off**** for some lucky girl or another. He's this year's**** newest addition to the Gryffindor team and a damn good Beater, if I do say so myself."**

The fond little smile that had found its way onto his lips disappeared at the magically enhanced commentary and the elated feeling that he had gotten from Sirius' stunt had quickly disappeared. Fingernails dug their way into the wooden bench as he cast his topaz eyes away from the action almost dejectedly, a trembling, dejected half-smile (in case Evans cared to tear her eyes away from the action in the sky) pushing insistently against his lips.

_"Gryffindors always keep a brave and strong attitude despite any challenges that are laid before them!__ Even in the face of defeat, a true Gryffindor never wavers!_

Remus' frown only intensified as he cast his glance upwards once more (albeit reluctant), scoffing softly at the multiple loops and daring swerves that Black was performing whenever he successfully slammed a bludger in a Ravenclaw's general direction. Pure euphoria was evident across his face whenever it actually _struck_ someone and that, predictably, only prompted further stunts and enthusiastic whooping from Padfoot.

**"...And Ravenclaw **_scores_**! That's a twenty to forty score, in favor of our lads in blue. Looks like Gryffindor is going to have to step up their game... the seekers are still soaring overhead, looking for the slightest glimpse of the Snitch, although no luck has been had by either side. Black and Sloper are both doing a lovely job warding off bludgers but the Chasers need to..."**

Sixty to ninety, eighty to one hundred... The game dragged on with only a few momentary sightings of the Snitch before it disappeared back into the clouds or higher up into the sky where even the most observant eyes wouldn't be able to point it out.

It had been about two hours since the beginning of the match and even Sirius had tired of doing his constant loops and twirls in celebration of merely hitting a bludger away from their slowly tiring Chasers. His eyes were strained, his arms were weakening and the sun beat down mercilessly upon his back, sweat constantly beading off of his brow. The score had finally evened out into a tie at two hundred and it seemed as if neither team had enough energy to pull themselves out of it. James had fumbled the Quaffle repeatedly by now and had needed to plummet downwards in an attempt to keep it in Gryffindor possession. The sun was simply sapping the energy out of _everyone _and in turn, forcing the game to go on for longer than average.

Remus' hair was damp with sweat, as was Lily's, and they had both fallen into that sort of drained, exhausted silence that was both peaceful and awkward at the same time. Even her socks had lost most of their pep considering how the rallying squeaks had died down to mere mumbles and murmurs of "_A Gryffindor's spirit never dampens!"_ long ago.

**"And, as we enter our second hour, not much has progressed on the field apart from constant fumbling of the balls and a previous Blatching offence on the Ravenclaw Keeper's account... One time out has been called, but there is end in sight... Wait- was that the Gryffindor Seeker? Yes, yes, that's Peakes, and she's **_seen_** something! She's barrelling into an almost perfect nose dive, good gods, look at that girl go..! Belby is right behind her, she must've seen it too... It's now a neck-and-neck race for the finish between Ravenclaw's seeker and Gryffindor's!"**

The crowds in both the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw stands had risen to their feet, hoarse shouts of encouragement and cries of enthusiasm rippling and roaring through them as they jostled each other for better spots, for a better view. Lily and Remus had moved up to stand on their benches by now and a soft gust of wind ruffled their hair and swept Lily's shawl into the air. She was streaking downwards with both Sirius and Sloper covering her back for incoming bludgers, one arm outstretched as Belby's broom jostled her own rather roughly... One swift turn and the veering of Peakes' broom was corrected and her fingers _finally_ clasped onto the little winged ball, the feathers rumpling in her vice-like grip.

**"In an **_astonishing_** play, Peakes comes out victorious, winning the two hour game and earning an additional **_one hundred and fifty_** points for Gryffindor, therefore putting the score at two hundred and thirty to one hundred! What a fantastic game and a victory that has only brought the Gryffindors one step closer to the Quidditch Cup..."**

The crowd _roared_ and Remus couldn't help directing his gaze over to Padfoot and Prongs who were both celebrating like madmen with wild loops, swerves and rolls in an odd sort of victory dance. He could see them shouting to each other but he couldn't hear their words over the din of celebrating Gryffindors and an overly excited announcer. All he was focusing on were those lips of Sirius'...

A hearty clap on his shoulder brought the lycanthrope back down to earth, amber eyes flickering back to look warmly upon an amusingly eager Lily Evans, a smile reaching his thin lips before he glanced back over at Sirius for a moment before rising to his feet. The dark-haired teen hadn't yet finished his 'victory lap' which happened to consist of his hanging precariously off of his broomstick by one arm, so Remus didn't pay him much mind at all... until a shrill scream pierced his ears.

Sirius Black was falling.

Topaz eyes had gone wide with alarm as Remus plunged forward, shoving his way through several second-years in an effort to get a better view of what was happening up front. Things weren't happening in slow motion for him like he had always figured that they would in like situations, but instead, everything was moving horribly fast.

James had been hanging idly in the air at the time, eyes wide enough to rival the diameter of a Quaffle before he forced his broom into a nosedive, fighting the speed of gravity itself and quickly swerving in Sirius' direction which forced him to barrel straight into a rapidly descending Padfoot. However, James' broom didn't really make for a comfortable or smooth 'landing pad' of sorts and despite Potter's floundering to grab onto the back of Sirius' quidditch robes, he slid right off of the left side of the broom – making a rather rough landing on the ground twelve feet below them.

Remus gasped. Lily face-palmed.

The mediwizard didn't waste any time in striding quickly across the field to Sirius' side and Lupin was already tearing down the stairway to emerge on the field, shoving anyone who was unfortunate enough to get in his way aside. By the time that he had run over to where Padfoot had fallen, the entire Gryffindor team and several other spectators had gathered around him, speaking in strangely cheerful tones.

"Well, think of it this way, mate," James had stooped down on one knee by Sirius' side, who was looking rather pale and probably in a significant amount of pain, "you'll have more girls trying to take care of you than you'll be able to count! But you _really_ shouldn't show off so blatantly, you stupid prat."

Sirius groaned a little in reply, hissing as a few healing charms began to sew him back together and trying to throw the best scornful look that he could muster over at Prongs (who very maturely stuck his tongue out in return).

The werewolf had pushed his way up to the front, nearly knocking over a remotely concerned Mr. Sloper before he fell to his knees beside Sirius, moving so that his face would be in Black's direct line of vision.

"Padfoot – are you alright? What on earth were you trying to _do_, you fool?"

Lily had finally arrived after having deduced that Sirius wasn't gravely injured (nobody was sobbing and the atmosphere was still rather light hearted) and convincing herself that great haste wasn't quite necessary. So, after congratulating Peakes on her catch and several other team members on their playing, Lily, her shawl and her constantly squeaking socks, moved to stand next to James, looking down on Sirius with a sceptical eye.

James, of course, felt obliged to offer an excuse in Sirius' stead, rolling his eyes a bit in exasperation. "He was showing off like an utter idiot, of course."

Lily scoffed rather loudly and James looked up, an eyebrow raised questioningly as she mimed picking up a muggle telephone (a reference that only Remus and a few other players understood), speaking into it with a mocking voice, "Oh, kettle? _What_?! You're _black_? Since WHEN?"

James' smile wavered for a moment before he managed to think up a suitable retort: "No, _he's_ Black, _I'm_ Potter. Dear god, Evans, you could at least remember my _name_ after my constant advances towards you!"

Remus had managed to block out most of the good natured banter, concentrating instead on speaking quietly to Sirius and asking the mediwizard a few questions about the other's state. It apparently wasn't serious, but someone would need to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he didn't overexert himself in the next few days... The werewolf nodded softly, trying to ignore how Sirius was silently (shamefully?) avoiding meeting Remus' eyes. Peter had only just joined the group, merrily asking how Sirius was doing and then going on to explain just _who_ he had spent the past several hours with.

"Be sure to report to the hospital wing if you feel any worse than you do right now... the potion that I gave Mr. Lupin should work well in relieving most of the pain. Don't take part in anything strenuous over the next few days either..."

The mediwizard rose and pocketed his wand, brushing his robes off before giving the remaining group (most of the other Gryffindors had migrated inside for the post-victory celebration) a professional nod. And without missing a beat, he was walking in a quick gait towards the castle, leaving the few lingering students to their own devices. James and Remus had moved almost immediately to pull Sirius to his feet (James kindly ignored how Remus fondly picked a few strands of grass out of the other Marauder's hair), two pairs of strong arms supporting a still-dazed Sirius Black.

It took a surprising amount of teamwork to keep him from dragging along on the ground or to keep from jostling him and for a while, they were both silent. The sun was no longer beating down upon the Marauders or Miss Evans and the evening warmth was doggedly pursuing them as they exited the stadium, both holding tight to one of Black's arms. Not many words were exchanged between the werewolf and the Animagus (Peter was busy explaining to Lily how he had managed to grab a seat next to Sara Cress and was still in his own perfect little world), and apart from an occasional unintelligible murmur or mumble from Sirius, things were almost awkwardly quiet. Sometimes Lupin would ask a small question to which James would quietly reply, but the silence between them was too thick to shatter at the moment.

Yes, Sirius' broom, as Remus was informed rather shortly, had already been whisked back to the appropriate shed and was none the worse for wear. No, James was not planning on a kitchen raid this evening, of course there would be an after party and yes, it had been a very good game apart from the obvious.

They had arrived at the great oaken doors by now and although it took a decent amount of balance to both hold Sirius and tug them open enough so that they could pass through comfortably. The cool of the Entrance Hall was greatly welcomed by both wizards and witches alike and James had no qualms in taking a shortcut to the common room with Lily in their presence.

"James?" The werewolf had helped push open the stone passage with his spare shoulder, ignoring how Potter's mood had worsened. The grunt that he got from said wizard was his supposed cue to go on, so he continued. "...who was Sirius showing off for?"

The bespectacled head boy's expression darkened as they moved into the dimly lit hallway, heaving his best friend in behind him with ample help from the lycanthrope.

"Take a wild guess, _Remus_."

**WOW. That took AGES. I am _so_ sorry for the wait and the sub-par ... ness... of this chapter. It's horrible, it's random, it's out of character... and yet I feel strangely attached to it. I _love_ Lily's socks and commentating was a _surprising_ amount of fun. XD Well, anywho. Next time shan't take NEARLY as long and I'll be sure to have it updated around my 120th review.**

**On another note! The new Harry Potter book is coming out on Friday, so I hope you all enjoy your reading immensely. The end of an era is close at hand, so be sure not to let _anyone_ spoil it for you ahead of time and, for all of you who are having their childhood close this weekend with the upcoming release, I understand. As an avid fan for nearly 10 years now, I feel your pain. Either way, next chapter around the 120th review and keep your chins up!**

**I'd also like to mention that, in my eyes, Tonks isn't straight. She seems too... not-straight to _be_ straight. Even if, in the movie, she was FANTASTIC and rather fetching. XD.**


	7. Of Fights and Distractions

**Hey there! Damn, you all are absolutely horrible people. HORRIBLE. Mainly because of the fact that I've gotten, what, a _billion_ reviews in the past 4-5 days? Honestly, you guys are cruel. Keeping me working like this. Pssh, _no_ respect for my summer! Damn you all! But really, I love you guys – reviews bread and butter for a writer, etc. ANYWHO, I finished the final HP book, shan't say anything more than the fact that I've finished it and I'd love to remind you that _reviews are for commenting on the story, not ranting about any portrayal issues in the actual, canon book. _I probably agree with you on any points that you could make anyway, so let's keep the reviews about whatever I'm churning out? I'm also planning on keeping this and the reviews relatively _spoiler free_ for those of you BAHAHAH JAYNE who have yet to receive or finish the book. And yes, I _am_ cruel.**

**And oh! By the way, there was a little confusion about how I placed James as the Chaser in my previous chapters – the first Harry Potter movie said that he was a seeker, but that is in fact, an error confirmed by Rowling herself. He was, originally, one of the three Gryffindor Chasers he was playing with a Snitch in the flashbacks because it seemed more impressive to the ladiezzz, apparently. Now, let's carry on, shall we?**

**Oh, and one more thing. When I say that I'm gonna try to have it posted by my xxxth review, that means that while I _haven't started it_, my vague plan is to have it done by then. Sometimes I have it done in time, most of the time I don't, so when I'm late, it isn't in a sort of "FWAHAHAH I HAVE IT BUT YOU SHALL NOT READ IT"… intent. Or whatever. So yeah, sorry again for the lateness! I'm also sorry for the upload and reupload - don't kill me? D:!**

_"Take a wild guess,_ **Remus**

The werewolf's grip on Sirius' arm had tightened significantly, his fingers making little white indents through his friend's clothes and into the other's skin. A soft groan from Padfoot barely registered in his mind as he stood there, utterly mortified.

"You can't possibly think that it's _my_ fault!" He lifted the Animagus between them over a step, shuffling through the half-darkness bemusedly.

"_Your_ fault?" James was there in an instant, heaving him past a vanishing stair and awkwardly trying to push his way past Remus, "Of course it's your fault!"

The light-brunette paused, staring at him with an air of disbelief and irritation about him before he continued tugging on Sirius insistently, attempting to half-carry him through the little passage. A small grunting noise from the young man who was being hauled about like a sack of flour was, as usual, completely ignored.

"I never asked for this to happen," Remus mumbled, glaring sullenly at a moldy candlestick holder about five feet ahead of them. He did not notice Sirius' small shifting on the dusty floor.

"Don't you _get_ it, Remus? If this doesn't work out, the Marauders are _finished_, we'd be completely done! It would break us up, it would _ruin_ us! I can't just let that happen! Peter and you and Sirius and I…" His voice broke off and he fell into an awkward pause, a frown deepening the lines in his face.

"I fail to see how this is completely and utterly _my_ fault. He… Padfoot… I don't know what he wants, but if it was me that he nearly killed himself over... Look, James, I don't want to-"

He was cut off by the hurried footsteps of Lily and Peter, who had only just caught up with their minor procession through the passage. Waving off Lily's question of if they had been interrupting things, Remus waited for James to silently take up one of Sirius' arms and pull him along. And, within moments, Peter had broken their awkward silence as they set off again to babble about the exact shade of Sara Cress' shoes and the pitch of her laugh and how her hair smelled like vanilla and blueberries.

By the time that they had reached the Fat Lady and heaved him through the portrait hole, the victory party was in full swing. A resounding cheer erupted at James' and Sirius' entrance accompanied by slight laughter. The cheery atmosphere, while it greatly contrasted with the icy chill that had visited Remus during his and James' brief conversation, did not do much to help his own disposition and, as soon as they deposited a rather weak Sirius on an empty armchair, they went in completely different directions. Remus was immediately seized and whisked away by a friend of the fifth year whose cat he had fed and engaged in pointless conversation about the girl's health. In truth, he was horribly grateful to be pulled away from James, who had already been immersed in a huddle of his pleasant-faced teammates.

However, even as the younger girl beamed and continued on about how her friend would be out of the hospital wing by tomorrow afternoon, Remus couldn't help but constantly glance back in the Animagus' direction, checking on him as several girls carried a firewhiskey to the now-barely-conscious Sirius Black. He took it with a grateful but shaky hand and cast them a sort of debonair smile, cheered the air and took a swig. Remus, having long since associated firewhiskey with rough, almost stubbly kisses and alcohol laden breath against his skin, found himself staring at Sirius rather blatantly now, an obvious longing present in his topaz eyes. He had to be pulled back to earth with a slightly violent shake from the girl that he had been talking to who pouted in what she probably thought was an adorable move before returning to her insanely one-sided conversation with the werewolf.

Peter had broken away from Lily by now to talk to several first years who found him to be impressive (likely for his role in the Marauders rather than his wit, charm or the attractively damp butterbeer stain on his shirt). Lily was speaking to someone else in her dorm while James, (who was stealing glimpses of her but keeping a close eye on Remus and Sirius as well) broke away from his gaggle of fans to discuss the upcoming match with Hufflepuff with their Captain.

"So, Abbott said that you were showing off for some girl!"

Sirius, who had taken another heavy gulp of his firewhiskey, his head comfortably propped up on a pillow that a blonde witch had conjured for him, nodded lazily much to his surrounding fanclub's delight. Slate eyes were still halfway closed as he pulled the bottle away from his slightly chapped lips, distraction obvious in his expression. The girls surrounding him pretended not to notice.

"I was showing off for someone, yeah," he affirmed, casting a pointed glance across the room at a certain Marauder. Remus, unfortunately, did not notice nor overhear. He seemed to be much too busy staring off into the distance wistfully. A girl giggled in an annoyingly high pitch, clasping her hands together eagerly.

"Who was it? Must've liked her a lot to nearly crack your head open for her!"

"Hmm," he murmured in agreement, eyes still fixed on his friend who had only just been freed from a probably painful conversation with that annoying 5th year. He seemed to be deliberating something or another in his excessively clever mind, calculating out odds and risks, gains and possible losses… Sirius knew his friend's mind rather well, after all. A tap on Black's shoulder brought his attention back to the surrounding issues at hand.

"I asked who it was!"

Sirius made a vague hand motion, trying to think up a name of someone who he had seen before and failing. He gave up, shrugging softly and answering that she had interesting orange hair that he thought had deserved a few stunts. Several faces fell in disappointment. Others were already attempting to figure out who Sirius had been showing off for, but Sirius ignored them, his attention fixed on Remus from over the rim of his bottle of firewhiskey. James, having moved away from his group of combination casual friends/fans, shooed some of the girls away to perch on the arm of Padfoot's chair, like a lean, bespectacled bird of prey.

"Alright mate?" His voice was low and quiet in comparison to the other drinking, more rambunctious students. "You look _tired_."

"Hmm," It wasn't an answer, really, but James took it as one, watching silently as Sirius took a long drink from his half-empty bottle. His fingers were clumsily holding onto his drink, his eyes distant, pondering something or another. James fell into an awkward, tentative silence, leaning forward to grab a bottle of firewhiskey from the table before them before shifting in his spot, choosing to look over in Lily's general direction distractedly rather than concentrate on Sirius' attitude or thoughts.

By now, Remus had wandered over to a table packed with food and drinks, picking out several chocolate frogs and a flask of pumpkin juice. He could feel those slate eyes on him and he had to keep himself from glancing back over to Padfoot's chair in return. He _had_ to tell him, Remus couldn't just hold it in any longer, but… with James right by his side, it didn't seem to be the smartest thing to do at the moment. So, Remus lingered by the entrance to the boy's dormitories, trying to keep his heart from pounding in his chest as he indiscreetly tried to look over at Sirius, his ears going a rosy shade of pink as their eyes met for the slightest moment. Quickly looking down into his flask, he turned away, cramming the chocolate frogs into his pocket hurriedly before ascending the stairs with an air of embarrassment. He _couldn't_ tell him, it wasn't nearly as easy as Lily had said it would be… and why was he taking advice from a girl who wouldn't even admit that she liked a certain James Potter anyway?

Pushing open the dormitory door with a shoulder, he sighed a little in relief as the music and loud voices faded considerably when the door closed behind him. He could think here, unlike in the endless din downstairs… He was the only one upstairs but he still started a little every time someone in the common room laughed rather loudly or whenever someone broke a glass… paranoia was surprisingly easy to come by after his argument with James earlier.

How _could_ he say those things anyway? It wasn't as if James _wasn't_ endlessly pining after Evans- so he wasn't allowed to have a relationship just because he wasn't a girl? It was completely ridiculous.

Collapsing onto his four poster bed, the werewolf groaned faintly, pulling his pillow into his arms and holding it tightly, his cheek pressed flush against the mattress. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't, he shouldn't… As much as he hated to admit it, James was right. It was too big of a chance, it was foolish, it was… exactly what he wanted.

Giving a frustrated sigh, he closed his topaz eyes and blindly kicked off his shoes, not caring where in the room they landed for once. About to slip into a doze, his entire body jerked as he heard footsteps thundering up the stairwell and angry voices reverberating through the halls. After careful listening and an attempt to stay totally still, he recognized the voices to be that of Peter, James and Sirius. James seemed to be leading the argument, his words occasionally slurring. Sirius was retorting whenever James gave him space to answer and Peter was mainly tacking on unhelpful comments whenever there was a gap in the conversation. They were lingering outside in the hall, probably an attempt at keeping Remus from hearing their conversation.

And, as if they were in the room, watching him pretend to sleep, Remus remained almost motionless on his bed, his fingers only moving to clutch onto his pillowcase tighter.

"I think it's a stupid idea and that's that," James was half-shouting, his voice probably raised by an indefinite amount of alcohol. Peter clucked his tongue rather faintly, but Sirius shot him a look and he stopped immediately. When Padfoot spoke, his voice was considerably more hushed.

"It's not stupid, you prat!" he hissed (it was hard for Remus to hear him through the heavy wooden door, but he managed to catch some of it anyway), "it _could_ work, if you weren't so bent on interfe-"

"I'm not interfering; I'm the only one out of us that makes _any_ sense! I don't care if you heard me speaking to Remus-"

He sat up abruptly, so quickly that his head ached. His eyes snapped open, mouth gaping wide in shock. Sirius _heard_ them? Gods, of course! The groaning, the small movements... he hadn't been unconscious like they had assumed, he'd heard the whole thing… Oh damn, oh _damn_…

James was still talking and this time, the werewolf clumsily stumbled to his feet, to listen closer to the door and catch the words that were so hard to hear.

"…Didn't you hear him?" James took a deep breath only to repeat back in an angry, slightly slurred but mocking voice, "He didn't _ask_ for this to happen- he _knows_ that this could break us all apart! Anyone who thinks otherwise is an _idiot_. You change girlfriends like you change socks, Sirius! How is Remus supposed to be any different?"

The boy leaning against the dormitory walls was shaking with repressed anger. He wanted to shout, just bellow it out in James' face that he could _make _it work, that he _was_ different and that he and Sirius would…

A thin hand rose to his brow, fingers pressing at his temples. That he and Sirius would what? Live happily ever after until they were both old and gray? Would he even be able to keep Sirius satisfied for half that time? A quarter of it?

"Remus is _not_ a girl," he could faintly hear Padfoot growling and the sudden shuddering of the wall made him jolt. Sirius had slammed his fist into the wall in his anger and Lupin had leapt to his feet, hearing those footsteps get closer again. And even though he knew that James was merely pacing, he hurried to get back into his bed, pulling the curtains shut and feigning sleep. His heart was pounding fervently.

The rest of the argument was a blur of muffled words that barely even made slight sense to Remus, who had curled up against the wall in an almost defensive posture.

"Just _trust_ me," "There's nothing about trust in this!" "Just bugger off, alright? What I choose to do is none of your business!" "You'd be ruining everything!" "You're mucking it all up by acting this way, you idiot!" "I don't want to lose your friendship, alright?"

He had fallen into indifference by now, staring numbly at the wall. Blank. The knot in his stomach had grown to epic proportions, wadding up to cause him further discomfort. He didn't notice the awkward pause, topaz eyes closing wearily.

"Mate…" Sirius' voice had gone quiet, an obvious sort of understanding in that single word, but for now, he was utterly speechless.

"Shut up, Sirius," James had stopped pacing now to turn and stare at his best friend, "just shut up."

He moved to push open the door, to lurch into their shared bedroom and to topple over onto his bed, obviously exhausted. Sirius' head was throbbing horribly but for once, he understood. Slowly following him into the room and glancing towards Remus' four poster, he stopped by where James had collapsed, leaning down to murmur something.

"We would still be friends; things would just change a little. It'd happen anyway if Lily ever said yes to you."

The werewolf did not catch the last few words, but at that point, he didn't care. Completely drained of all energy, he had fallen into a kind of half doze, so tired that he didn't even hear Peter bidding the three of them to have a good night and, for the first time in several days, James' good-natured reply.

**Alriiight! Done. Took me a little longer than I had hoped, but it's done! A little short too, so sorry on that front. D:**

**I'd love to add that this chapter did not go the way that I initially intended, but I'm still sort of kind of pleased with it. I've been in South Carolina lately! Yeah, I went on vacation with limited internet/computer time, so I suppose that's my latest excuse. Astroturf and gravesites. Faaantastic. /sarcasm Also, an interesting fact, this chapter was written in 6 different US states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Hurrah for laptops?**

**OH, and remember what I said in the beginning: Please keep the reviews _about this fic only_. I want this to be spoiler free, so don't be all killjoy because that's retarded. I'm not particularly interested in what you liked and disliked in the canonical book, so… yeah. Keep it to yourself, kay?**

**Alright. SO, Next update will be about… 155-160 reviews? Probably before then, but you guys went so fast to 125 that I'm absolutely exhausted! Hope you all liked it! More interesting stuff (IE: smut) is coming up in future chapters, I promise. It's rated M for a reason, XD.**

**And hey, as an added note, I'd love it if people would add me and talk to me on their various messenger things. I fucking love talking to random people that I dunno, XD no, that isn't sarcasm, honestly, so feel free to add me on AIM (screenname: electricalsun) or MSN (screenname: electricalsun (at) hotmail . com take out the spaces, XD). So drop me a line, people!**


	8. Of Moaning and Maps

**Yeah, yeah, this is a little late, but I've been insanely busy this month with my various… travelling… ordeals… so basically, I'll cut down on the pre-game chatter and dive right into what you guys are wanting. Fair enough? I thought so too. XD**

**ALSO: the titles of books and chapters-in-books have British spellings in them because… well, they're _British_ _books_, so it seems understandable to me.**

The first thing that Remus Lupin realized upon waking up was that he had not changed into his nightclothes before going to sleep. The second thing that he realized were the three uncomfortably sticky and disgustingly warm chocolate frogs that had been nesting in his pocket since the evening before. So, significantly crumpled and dazed, he sat up and pushed the sheets off of his weary body, trying to remember why he had-…

Amber eyes fell almost immediately upon Sirius' bed through his poorly drawn curtains and he frowned deeply, a knot of dread welling up in his stomach.

Oh.

Sirius had _heard _his argument with Prongs- he had even fought with James over it… and logically, for that was how Remus' mind always worked, that meant that Sirius was going to either formally break off every single attempt at fixing things with the young werewolf in an attempt to pacify James or… he would renew his efforts.

All of a sudden, Remus couldn't figure out which he dreaded more. Could _he_, Remus J. Lupin, possibly take that chance if it came to him? Or would he be able to cope with being dumped by Sirius before something even had a chance to begin? Both possibilities were horribly unnerving and Remus didn't think he would be able to face either of them with even _slight_ confidence.

Standing up by now, the light-brunette shook the hair out of his eyes and silently crossed the cold wooden floor to kneel by his trunk, picking out suitable clothes as quickly and as quietly as he could. Even the slight ruffling of fabrics that came hand in hand with changing clothes seemed alarming in the near-silence. Changing took almost no time at all and by the time that he had pulled on his clothes, he had formed a sort of plan in his head. The map. He needed the map. Remus pulled on his shoes as quietly as he could before moving to grope blindly underneath James' bed for the familiar sheaf of parchment that they had only just perfected in the past year or so. Finally his thin fingers closed around it and he tugged it back out into the open before edging away from his friend's bed.

Drawing his wand from his pocket almost immediately, he took several steps closer to the door before tapping the map softly and whispering "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_."

As it had been enchanted to do, the spindly ink lines slowly flowed across the parchment, gradually showing the entirety of Hogwarts and its students, ghosts and professors. Only a few little labeled dots were moving and out of their respective dormitories at this hour- the Grey Lady was hovering through the great hall, several owls were roosting in a little out of the way courtyard and Professor Slughorn was near the kitchens, probably looking for an early-morning breakfast. The library, the prefect's bathroom and the classrooms were all empty.

'_Now_,' he thought as his finger traced the numerous halls and staircases with practiced ease, '_I just have to find somewhere to hide where nobody would think to look for me._'

This, unfortunately, was easier said than done and it quickly ruled out every single classroom he could think of, the great hall and the library. The prefect's bathroom, although it seemed to be a good idea, wasn't the most opportune place to hide unless he wanted to chance someone else walking in on him _and_ it wasn't as if the Marauders didn't know the password to get in anyway. The next place that came to mind was the Forbidden Forest but that idea was quickly discarded as well. After all, the map didn't actually encompass much of the forest anyway and the only reason that he _ever_ went into the forest was because of full moons and that was reason enough for the lycanthrope to avoid the area as much as he could while he was human. But he had to get back on the subject of finding a good place to hide…

Back and forth his finger went, deliberating over every single quasi-tempting room or area in sight, discarding room after room until…

He stopped.

The girls bathroom on the third floor. Nobody was _in_ there and he wouldn't have to deal with anyone coming in there on a Sunday with no classes, extra-curricular activities or common rooms nearby and nobody would think to look for him in there… And even if it was a little humiliating to even consider camping out in a girls bathroom all day, he decided on it right then and there, straightening up and murmuring a quiet "_Mischief managed_" to the precious slip of parchment.

And without a second thought on his plans for the day, he loosely tucked the map into his trouser pocket and silently left the room, only pausing to cast a longing glance at Sirius' bed before hardening his resolve to stay out of the way and further delay whatever decision the dark-haired teenager made.

As soon as the dormitory door was safely shut, Remus took a little less care with being quiet- the door would filter out most of the noise anyway and they could always assume that it was another early-rising Gryffindor instead of their very own Moony. Descending down the spiral staircase into the common room, Remus allowed himself a small sigh and a reluctant sort of stretch. Maybe he would have a chance to think out that potion that he had been struggling with rather than this whole mess…

"Morning, Remus!"

The lycanthrope flinched automatically, whipping around to look in the direction of the voice and internally cursing when he saw that familiar mane of red hair. Taking a few seconds to compose himself, Moony straightened up and smoothed down his clothes, trying to act and look natural despite his obviously frazzled appearance. Not noticing a slight lack of weight in his pocket, he gave Lily a small smile and took a small step closer to where she had been sitting at a hard wood table. Papers were spread out around her and several books were lying open, supposedly as reference points rather than anything else. And, looking a little worn, Lily sat there amongst it all, wiping the approaching sleep from her eyes before giving Remus a friendly sort of nod.

"You're up early."

It wasn't the cleverest line that Remus could pull out of his hat but Lily took no mind of it and picked up her scroll of parchment to show off the miniscule, slanted writing that filled at least a foot and a half of it. Two mugs of what was presumably pumpkin juice were sitting there on the table- one was empty and the other was full and probably cold by now.

"Divination homework- it isn't due for another several days but I was on a roll…"

She trailed off sheepishly but Remus understood and gave her a warm sort of smile. He had pulled more sleepless nights of straight working than he could possibly ever count and, for once, it made him feel a little more normal to see someone else doing the same thing.

"Are you going to go have breakfast?"

Remus looked up and quickly shook his head, his earlier thoughts of hiding all day returning to him before he thought better of his reaction. He would go to the kitchens and ask for a little bit of food- that would be better…

Lily had leaned forward on her stacks of notes and books to look at him with scarily insightful green eyes and again, Remus jerked out of his internal reveries. "I'm just going to go… take a walk," he lied through his teeth and for a moment, Lily's left eyebrow raised but she seemed to write off the feeble attempt at a fib.

"Its fine," she said cheerfully, "I'll talk to you later then, I suppose?"

Remus nodded gratefully, brushing the hair out of his eyes with a weary hand before turning to the redhead and grinning.

"Of course… and be sure to tell James off for being late to your 'study group', won't you?"

She went a sudden shade of indignant pink at this, her lips pursing as if she was about to tell the werewolf off before she looked to the side, a silent admission to why she had _really_ been up so early. Finally, she gave a small smirk, tilting her head to the side in a devilishly intelligent way before adding, "Don't I always?" and leaning back down onto the table, her head propped up with one hand.

Remus gave the girl another smile and, pushing the portrait to the side, stepped out of the common room, ignoring the slightly muffled protest from Lily for him to wait up as he strode confidently down the halls to his destination.

If he had turned back before the portrait swung shut again, maybe he would have noticed Lily standing there, baffled, with a slip of blank parchment in her hand, trying to work out why Remus would have had an empty sheaf of paper in his pocket for absolutely no reason at all. Sighing a little, she returned to her piles of books, notes and the two mugs- one empty and one still full. Lily, thinking nothing more of the seemingly innocent slip of parchment, folded it up carefully and slipped it between chapter 5, '_Colours of One's Aura and What They Say about You_' and chapter 6, '_Popular Myths about Tea Leaves'_ before continuing her careful note-taking.

Sirius woke up with a start, his mind muddled and foggier than it usually was in the morning. Daylight had already streamed through the window- enough even to hit the bottom of Peter's drawn curtains… had he really slept in that late?

On a normal day with no classes, Sirius couldn't even be roused from his sleep by six naked girls with whipping cream and dirty thoughts in mind, but today, he groggily remembered that he had resolved to wake up early for a reason… An _important_ reason… but what? It wasn't as if he had woken up next to some random girl again and it wasn't like he had to sneak out to get something or finish a sorely-put-off assignment before class started… James wasn't mad at him anymore, Peter was no longer humming that damnably annoying American theme song to the 'Brody Bunches' or whatever he had watched on the teli-vee-shun at his aunt's house over the last break and Remus…

The Animagus jolted as he remembered what he had decided to do, kicking the sheets off of himself as he practically tumbled out of bed to fall on the floor with an unnecessarily loud thump only to get tangled up in his curtains on the ground.

"Bloody… fucking… curtains…"

He was going to go after Remus today. He had forced James to give his half-blessing (which had been more of an exhausted but grudging admittance that it would have happened _eventually _and that Sirius should _really_ stop bothering him in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason at all) and now he was going to 'go for the Galleons', as they say. So, practically ripping himself out of the curtains, he stood up in all of his sleep-mussed glory, shirtless and with messy hair- messier than James on a self-proclaimed 'good day'. And, slowly, relishing the look that he was sure would come over Remus' face when he saw a half-naked Padfoot standing before him, he turned and marched across the room to throw back the curtains to Remus' bed…

It was empty. He had woken up early, but not early enough.

"Dammit."

One strong hand, calloused from constant exercise and flying with James, ran through his hair irately before he turned on his heel to dig around for suitable clothes and his wand. Sirius Black was going to get what he had subconsciously wanted for quite a while and he wasn't going to even entertain the notion of failing. And much like James, when Sirius wanted something, he made sure that he got it and refused to give up until he had it.

Tugging on a slightly crumpled shirt from his trunk and stumbling around a little as he yanked on his trousers as quickly as he could (and nearly knocking into James' bed in the process), Sirius preformed a few basic vanity spells that he had taught himself in the interest of looking good on a constant basis. A hair taming spell forced away his bed-head, an ironing sort of spell got rid of those stubborn wrinkles and a quick breath-freshening spell got rid of anything else that he would have potentially worried about when going in for the figurative 'kill'. And so, ignoring James' muffled curses from inside his four-poster, he dropped to his knees by Potter's bed and groped around underneath it for the familiar sheaf of-…

Nothing was there.

Sirius pressed his face to the semi-dusty floor beside James' bed to peer through the space between the mattress and the floor and saw nothing but a pair of old socks, a Transfiguration book and a clipped article on a famous Quidditch star's record breaking Quaffle catches. No map.

Remus, unfortunately, must have thought ahead in that damnably clever way of his and taken it so that he wouldn't be found… and even though Sirius had no earthly idea as to why he was hiding- after all, who would _want_ to hide from such a sexy beast?- he knew that if he was to find the lycanthrope, (soon to be _his_ lycanthrope), he would have to start looking _now_. So, slipping on his coal black dragonhide boots that he had always been obscenely proud of, he started off, not caring enough to keep himself from slamming the dormitory door and pounding down the spiral staircase that led into the common room, heading straight to the portrait hole with a sense of fervor.

"Morning, Sirius."

Padfoot almost screeched to a stop, turning to look around for the source of the noise and finding none other than a certain Lily Evans at the exact same table that Remus had left her at. Part of Sirius really did _not_ like the knowing smile that she was giving him, but he chose to ignore it.

"Ah- good morning, Evans…" He was hastily smoothing down his hair, taking this opportunity to tug at his hair in what could be seen as a nervous habit, "… have you seen Moo- Remus around lately?"

Lily closed one of her Divination books and adjusted her seating, choosing to smile sagely at the Marauder over her piles of notes and writing. And when she finally spoke, it was slow, deliberate and much too smug for Sirius' liking. Did she know something that he didn't?

"He passed by here looking sort of ill at ease about an hour ago," she informed him, still smiling in that new and slightly creepy manner of hers. But as soon as Sirius moved to set off again, she made another noise, jerking to flip through her book.

"Wait, wait, wait," she interjected, her voice a little more hurried- as if he too would dart away before she could impart her final dose of 'wisdom', "he dropped this- I don't know what it is, but I figure that he probably needed it for something. You should return it to him for me."

Something in her voice said that this was definitely _not_ an option and, finally finding it between the pages of her book, she held it out for Sirius to take.

For a moment, Sirius stood there, gaping at her, then the paper, then back again. Was this utter luck or the workings of a Saint 'up there' who felt kindly towards him? Or did Lily know more than she was supposed to? Slate eyes narrowed in suspicion at the object of Prong's affections as he swiped the slip of parchment away from a now very interested Lily and pocketed it. Then, thanking her for returning it to him safely, he made his exit as quickly as he possibly could, avoiding the overly curious look that Lily was giving him. And as soon as he had passed through the portrait, he heard a slightly faint "good luck," coming from inside the common room, but before he could turn back to stare at her, bewildered, the fat lady was hiding the Gryffindor common room again and he gave up on looking for the source.

Dragonhide boots clicked almost uniformly against the stone floors as he moved away from the portrait hole, lest the Fat Lady hear him whispering at a piece of blank parchment. Finally, when he considered himself far enough away from anyone who might overhear him, he drew out his wand and poked the parchment rather roughly, mumbling a hurried "_I solemnly swear I am up to no good_". On cue, the ink began to form chamber after chamber, room after room, all spread out before the Animagus. But Sirius didn't care about Peeves terrorizing house elves in the kitchens or Snivellus lurking about the dungeons or Lily and her books. He was looking for that familiar light-brunette who wasn't in his usual places. The library, apart from the librarian and a boy that he recognized as a Seeker on the Hufflepuff team, was empty. The classrooms, save for a few teachers, were also devoid of any werewolf-like blots and the grounds didn't hold Remus either. So, peering closer at the map to the point where his nose nearly grazed the paper, he raked through the rooms. The Bloody Baron was busy scaring first years, the Grey Lady had moved to lurk through the tallest towers and Moaning Myrtle was busy bothering a huddled mass in the third floor girls bathroom, carefully labeled in slanting script as 'Remus J. Lupin'.

"…Moony?"

This, Remus decided, had been an utterly stupid idea. Not only was this bathroom just as shamefully kept as the boys bathrooms were (he had expected, rather stupidly, that the girls bathroom would be much cleaner in comparison. It wasn't.), but it also smelled and one simple fact had slipped his mind as soon as he attempted to make himself a little more comfortable against the wall of the stalls. Moaning Myrtle, unfortunately, had claimed this bathroom as her very own haunting grounds. _That_ was why it was frequently abandoned, and for good reason too. For after all, if Remus had been looking for the one person in the entire school who was more miserable than he was, Moaning Myrtle would have been a first pick. And she most certainly lived up to her name.

"And _then_, then she poured an entire pitcher of butterbeer over my head…" a slow, mournful voice was echoing through the room, "and oh, everybody _laughed _and _laughed_… I hid in my dormitory for _days_…"

She had appeared only about 10 minutes after Remus had settled in with the chocolate that the house elves had so cheerfully supplied him with, spouting out of a faucet like a big, horrible, swelling raindrop. And even though she was basically translucent, he could still see the sticky, welling tears pour down her face slowly as she recounted the more horrible moments of her life.

At first, Remus had felt slightly bad for her and had engaged in a rather pointless discussion about what he considered to be happier things. It had been a pathetic attempt at steering the conversation in a more positive light, especially considering how Myrtle had been a diabetic in her past life, ruling out any type of sweets, got sunburn too easily and therefore had to stay inside and, of course, she _hated_ reading with a passion. So, with that more pessimistic view on life in mind, Remus retired to a stall, pulled down the toilet seat and sat on the cover, brooding. He decided that if he had ever been forced to live through something like that without any good friends, books or chocolate, he would have killed himself long before any gigantic serpent could ever beat him to the punch.

And there he sat, listening to that doleful, monotone voice whine about how cruel everyone was to her and how her things had been stolen away and destroyed and that she had always been picked on… Remus yearned to tell her about how being a werewolf, nevermind a _gay_ one blew _all _of that right out of the water but he managed to keep his mouth shut, opting instead to lean miserably against the side of the stall. Maybe it would be best if he simply hid in the library- at least then he wouldn't be bothered by stupid ghosts and their age-old grievances against the world…

The door opened and Remus froze, his stomach curling into a tight ball of nerves as he drew his knees to his chest instinctively. Someone was in here- maybe, _maybe_, it would be a girl who had needed the loo rather than…

Myrtle, strangely pleased with the prospect of someone else to sob about her life to, didn't hesitate in floating out to meet this newcomer head on, swiping away the remaining tears from her chat with Remus before sizing up her new visitor with beady eyes. One translucent hand reached out to flirtatiously toy with her equally translucent pigtails as she leaned forward to get a better look.

"Another _boy_?"

It was a giggle more than anything, as if she was deeply flattered that two members of the male sex would come and visit her in one day and her hands moved to smooth down her ancient robes in a self-conscious sort of manner. Remus' heart sank at this overheard snatch of information but he forced himself to stay silent and calm. After all, he still had the map… One thin hand groped into his trouser pocket before he froze. It was empty. And, unfortunately, save for his wand and a knut, his other pocket was just as empty as the first.

Footsteps were approaching his stall and Remus tried to muffle the hurried beats of his own heart, terrified that whoever was outside his temporary sanctuary would end up hearing them and _knowing_ where he was.

"Moony,"

Said Marauder, who had only just attempted to stop breathing, forced his eyes closed- maybe if _he_ couldn't see Sirius, then maybe Sirius wouldn't be able to see…

"I know you're in there- I have the map."

While that was a small relief when it came to the worry of having lost one of their most valuable possessions, Remus did not say a word- as if he would be able to fool his friend on the other side of the door by simply keeping quiet. Needless to say, this was a flawed plan from the start and as soon as Sirius knocked on the door, Remus knew that the gig was up, so to speak. Reluctantly letting his feet hit the floor, he stood and slowly unlocked the door, his stomach still curled into multiple knots. Sirius stood there before him in all of his glory, arms crossed and a slightly exasperated expression across his face.

"You know, I keep saying that you aren't a girl, but this isn't exactly helping my case."

Remus felt the back of his neck heat up a little and the desire to close the stall door in Sirius' face and hide again was getting stronger than he had ever anticipated. Merlin, this was _not_ what he had wanted to deal with today...

Sirius, having taken a few steps back in a slightly encouraging way, as if trying to coax the werewolf from the stall, tilted his head at the silence, frowning a little. Maybe it would be best if he tackled this head on…

"Why were you hiding, Remus?"

Moaning Myrtle had rather inconspicuously moved to loiter by another toilet, feigning disinterest as she listened in on their conversation. Remus had, again, almost stopped breathing and he had to cough a few times to clear his throat before looking up at Sirius and taking a step out of the stall to face his friend.

"I was… being foolish," he stated quietly, toying with the ends of his sleeves, "and I was trying to delay something that I knew was… inevitable."

There was an air of finality in his voice, one that he couldn't quite shake off if he tried. Sirius, who had chosen to linger near a sink, cast an anxious look over at the shorter Marauder. Remus, however, did not meet his gaze.

The only thought that ran through Sirius' mind at this point was '_Why isn't he happier?_' and he slowly moved towards the werewolf, concerned. Finally, he dared to ask the question.

"What were you trying to delay?"

Remus did not answer immediately, suddenly finding the wet tiled floor to be an incredibly interesting thing to look at. But, when he finally spoke, it was nearly inaudible, almost as if it would sound less shameful if he said it as quietly as he could.

"Your decision."

They were at a standstill, like two opponents before a duel, wands raised, breath held, waiting for the other to make a move to launch things into action. Both teenagers had stopped their every movement and for now, they simply stared at each other. Myrtle chewed on the end of her left pigtail.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Sirius withdrew his hand from the strange tap that looked like a snake's head and walked across the bathroom to stand only a pace before Remus.

"Go out with me." It wasn't a question.

Remus hesitated, his face having gone an interesting shade of red. Myrtle made a surprised sort of squeak and fell through the nearest toilet's u-bend. Sirius' hands twitched a little, as if they were desperate to grab ahold of Remus and pull him close, to convince him that it was the right choice…

"I… but the _Marauders_… We can't…" but Remus could only imagine what would happen if he said no. He would be alone again while James went out to attempt wooing Lily and while Sirius left to find a girl for the night. Alone, sitting there miserably next to Peter for the rest of eternity. He bit down on his lower lip for the slightest moment before he added, "you know that I wouldn't just sleep with you immediately…" He didn't know if it was supposed to scare Sirius off or not, but he gave the werewolf a reckless sort of grin as he stepped forward to catch the other male in a tight embrace, whispering something in the other Gryffindor's ear that made Remus go an even darker shade of crimson, his lips turning upwards in a smile.

"You know that I've always loved a challenge."

**AHA. A long chapter this time! I fucking win.**

**Next chapter may take a bit longer… 190-200 reviews or something? College/high school for those of you in America is starting up for me in about… two weeks or so, so I'm not gonna prioritize this over my studies XD Sorry guys? It'll be a fun side-project, as ever, but I'll be sure to keep up with everything.**

**Also! I love random IMs from people; so again, see the ending author's notes for chapter 7 if you want my contacts. Really, I adore them, so… keep talking to me?**

**Final note: great thanks to boiledpotato/Jayne! who happens to be my beta and a very good real-life friend of mine- if you have spare time and don't mind some D/H goodness, she has an awesome fic that takes place in a broom closet, only dialogue. Go look it up if you're bored- you won't be sorry. Thanks for being my beta-- Velvet Revolver, bitch! and you fucking rock.**


	9. Of Haikus and 'Cawlognay'

**This is SO UNBELIEVABLY LATE. Dear god, I should have rocks with needles taped to them thrown at my forehead or something equally distressing. I've been suffering through SUCH a terrible writer's block, honestly, and I can't promise that this chapter will be any good, if at all. I've written and rewritten this stupid thing on at least seven separate sheaves of paper, I've tried three different angles to write it from, I've worded and reworded everything… There is no winning with this thing and hopefully this won't suck half as much as I expect it to. I'm sorryyyyyy. I really wanted to update before 2008, but my muse is busy being mauled in the corner of my mind and it wouldn't get up and work properly.**

Sirius had not expected it to be this difficult. Two weeks had passed since their 'incident' in the 3rd floor bathroom and, since then, the dark-haired Marauder had been trying to take things as slowly and smoothly as possible. It honestly wasn't as if he didn't understand Remus' needs- he had to study for a few hours every day and get a fair amount of sleep and sometimes he would tutor a few first years- and Sirius _respected_ that, or, at least, as much as he possibly could. It was just, and he was as ashamed to think it as he was to admit it to himself, he felt restless. Of course, his restlessness certainly didn't mean that he was bored of Moony or that he had a wandering eye, but he has _needs_, needs that drawn curtains, his right hand and a few very good mental images could not possibly begin to sate.

The surprisingly loud tap of a quill's tip against the back of Remus' history course-book temporarily derailed his train of thought and, almost groggily, Sirius unplanted his face from the worn mahogany table, his line of sight swinging up to include his friend. Well, he was more than a friend now and Remus had the lovebites across his shoulders and lower neck to prove it, but 'boyfriend' sounded too… teenage-girly and Sirius wouldn't stand for _that_. He wasn't dating one of those pretty-but-dim Hufflepuffs after all, he was dating the exclusive and elusive, beautifully clever Remus Lupin and he definitely outranked any buxom blonde that could possibly sashay up to him _now_.

Remus was sucking on the end of his quill thoughtfully and Sirius, for the hundredth time that day, found himself wishing that he would be treated like one of Remus' precious quills…

"You're staring, Padfoot,"

Remus' voice was soft and obviously amused as he leaned over his sheaf of parchment and continued to write, neat, spindly cursive flowing obediently after the feather's tip. Sirius, who was determined to keep the werewolf from getting the best of him, smirked a little and pulled himself up from the table, cracking his knuckles and wrists before sauntering casually over to the other Marauder's side of the table.

"Sirius, I'm nearly done…"

But, at the press of lips against his neck, his pen froze in the middle of a loopy, cursive 'j', the bottom blotting slightly before he pulled it off the parchment. Of course, blotted j's and 'just-a-minutes' were of no importance to the Animagus who, as he had yet to be rebuked for his move, had only just started to suck teasingly on the back of a certain Mr. Lupin's neck.

"I've only- mmm- another sentence or so to finii- Merlin, if you leave a mark..!"

Sirius knew only too well that threats from Moony- especially when they were directed at _him_- were just that, threats, and he didn't really hesitate at all in sucking a little harder, his fingers playing at the front buttons of Remus' shirt. After all, Sirius had never, not in all their years of Marauder-ship, had any qualms with blatantly teasing the werewolf when he was trying to get things done, so why on earth would he stop now?

If there was one thing that Sirius had learned since that fateful Sunday, it was that Remus, no matter how furiously he denied it, was incredibly responsive to even the slightest touch. If he ran a finger over the other teen's neck, he would try to stifle a shiver, if he trailed his tongue along the shell of one of Remus' ears, he would quell a quasi-annoyed groan, if he let his hand stray downwards to the werewolf's trousers… he would get shouted at and the contact for the day, unless Remus felt particularly forgiving, would end. He would be lying if he ever said that he wasn't fascinated with each and every reaction that he could milk out of the brunette and Sirius had made it his own personal goal to memorize every shudder, every toss of Remus' head and every low groan, moan or, if he was being too rough, growl.

"_And, in conclusion, the cultivation of Streeler eggs for potential remedial use would be not only immoral, but incredibly dangerous as well. In short, the benefits simply would not outweigh the probable consequences of misuse and human greed._"

Sirius' mouth reattached itself to Moony's neck as soon as his quill was placed down onto the worn table and Remus couldn't help but bite back a groan. "Sirius, I was thinking…"

The dark-haired Marauder grunted a little in response, to show that he was listening before letting his lips trail down to Remus' collarbone.

"You know, we haven't even had a date yet."

Sirius stopped, gray eyes flicking up from his spot against Moony's upper chest. Regretfully, he pulled back from his spot and straightened up before collapsing back into his chair, his legs thrown over one of the arms, his stare almost boring straight into Remus. In truth, he looked like a petulant child- much like how any young boy would look if he was asked to do something on a Saturday morning or had to go shopping with his mother.

"It's not as if I'm asking _much_… I just want a proper date, that's all."

Sirius was silent for a moment before he stretched a little in his seat and gave an almost inaudible sigh.

"Well, what would you define as 'proper'? We had one last weekend, you know."

"Last weekend consisted of hiding under a table at the Three Broomsticks for an hour after you threw a dungbomb at Snape and jinxed him into having horrifyingly large lips. And after that, we almost got caught snogging by that third year Hufflepuff."

"That's a date."

"The only thing that we did that we wouldn't have done _normally_ was snog, Sirius. **And** Peter was there too- that's not a date. Being in your presence and making out afterwards doesn't constitute as a date, despite what your former flings might think." Remus was a little exasperated now and it showed as he treated his books and quills with an uncharacteristic roughness whilst packing up.

"You know, I'd take you down to Madame Puddifoot's for a steaming cup of blatant flamboyancy, but I don't think that you'd appreciate the sentiment."

Moony's eyebrows narrowed drastically and Sirius took that as his cue to stop talking as Remus put away his things, stored his quills in the pocket of his bag and rose to his feet. There was a small purple patch of skin on the back of his neck- hopefully the lycanthrope wouldn't notice it for a little while… However, Sirius _was_ a little surprised when the other Marauder started to walk off, probably towards the common room. Hoping to salvage his dignity, Padfoot grabbed his sweater and ran to catch up to Remus, who was doing a poor job of hiding his obvious bad mood as he stormed down the halls.

"_Moony_, Moony, look. I didn't think that it was that big a deal to you, but…" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw the glare that Remus was shooting him and it took a moment for him to carry on. "Meet me in the common room at… say… nine thirty, tonight, okay? You've finished _all_ your work and you don't have anyone to tutor or anything to study for, so you can't get out of it. Wear something warm and don't eat dinner, okay?"

And, with a small peck to Remus' lips, Sirius was off, striding down the halls in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor tower, leaving a very bewildered werewolf behind.

It was nine thirty-five and Sirius was late. Maybe he'd taken a little too long in the kitchens- maybe he could've been quicker with the setup and with making sure that Filch would stay away for the evening (he had set off a chain reaction of old exploding snap cards near the Ravenclaw common room and asked Nearly Headless Nick to hold him up if he tried to leave and resume his usual patrolling), but for now, he was climbing the stairs and heading down the hallway to mutter a quick "acromantula" at the Fat Lady's portrait before scrambling in. Of course, after tripping over a pile of books that a third year had carelessly left next to the entrance to the common room and dusting himself off, the clock had just hit nine forty. Padfoot had yet to change clothes, brush his teeth again and put on the 'caw-log-nay' that his slightly off Aunt Andromeda had given him for Christmas. But then again, that was the year before Sirius' mother sent a fairly threatening howler to her sister's house to tell her to stop trying to influence her children into associating with half-bloods and mudbloods through muggle gifts.

Remus was standing there by the stairs, watching Peter who was watching James dig through a book for flowery prose to put into his 'love haiku' to a certain redheaded prefect. In fact, Sirius, if he hadn't just fallen flat on his face in front of the person that he was due to be taking out on a date ten minutes ago, would've actually tried to sneak by him. That was, he would have tried if Peter hadn't snorted at his far from graceful entrance and if Remus hadn't rather obviously rolled his eyes at him before explaining to an otherwise occupied James that 'adorably condescending' had eight syllables in it and that it wasn't the most tactful thing that he could describe Lily as anyway.

"Five minutes, I swear," Padfoot was already heading up the stairs, his breath coming in short, gasping bursts from having run all the way to the common room from the kitchens. Remus didn't even have time to scoff fondly at him- he was already gone.

"Rem- why're you wearing a scarf? The fire's going."

However, Peter's question went unanswered as the werewolf held back a sigh and continued to stare blankly over James' shoulder.

"How about 'gorgeously cruel' for the first line?"

"Are we talking about Lily Evans or a ball-crushing dominatrix, Prongs? … Actually, fair play, go on."

"'Destroying my self-image' is seven syllables, right? She'd probably take that as a compliment… 'Fate's always a cruel mistress'?"

James paused for a moment, tapping his quill against the already heavily scribbled on piece of parchment impatiently.

_"Merlin, you're so whipped- why not make the middle line 'I would love to lick your boots' and then the last line could be 'please don't step in shite'?"_

Prongs jerked a little at the sound of Sirius' voice from under his chair, but after a small jolt of realization and a minor amount of digging around in his satchel, he excused himself from the table and left Peter, who was busy counting the tiles on the ceiling to keep Remus busy. Remus, at this point in time, was tugging on the ends of his scarf in a slightly nervous fashion and glancing up the stairs to the boys' dormitories, then to the clock and then back again. As soon as James was next to a window and suitably out of earshot, he pulled the mirror out of his sleeve and peered into it for a moment before working out that it was probably sitting on Sirius' bed.

"For your information, I am _not_ whipped- I'm genuinely interested in wooing the ever-intangible Lily. And you're the one who just spent nearly two hours setting up a simple date- are you even _dressed_ yet?"

A thump from the other side of the mirror and the sound of something spraying out of a bottle answered that question and, when something other than the canopy of Sirius' bed came into view in the mirror, it happened to be a very messy looking Padfoot who just so happened to be lying on the floor.

"Simple? You should've seen him- he was really annoyed at me and _apparently_ last weekend's Hogsmeade trip didn't count!"

"You took _Peter_ with you."

"It was still a date! But, I digress- how angry does he look?"

James, who had been sitting on a windowsill, his cheek pressed up against the frosty glass, turned his head to the side to try and inconspicuously figure out the lycanthrope's current mood.

"He doesn't look angry, he looks disappointed. Kinda like how you look whenever Remus won't let you borrow his history essays."

"Damn- I'll be down in a minute, literally."

And the mirror, due to James' sudden inability to see anything properly, was slid under his bed, effectively shutting off contact with his partner in crime. True to Sirius' word, within thirty seconds, he was sweeping down the spiral staircase and offering Remus an arm and a debonair smile. Remus, however, didn't look pleased at all, as he had effectively been waiting for almost twenty five minutes and he'd yet to eat at all this evening, so he politely kept his arms to himself, bid farewell to James and Peter and strode out of the common room, not even waiting for the dark-haired animagus who found himself nearly running in an attempt to keep up.

"And _I'm_ whipped?"

The halls down to the first floor were incredibly cold despite the tapestries lining each wall and the thick rugs across the floors. Remus and Sirius only occasionally lapsed into quiet conversation until Remus would inevitably remember that he was supposed to be annoyed at the other Marauder and fall silent right in the middle of a sentence.

The werewolf didn't even move to look at the other Marauder properly until Sirius told him to stop right in front of the doors to the Great Hall and even then, Remus regarded him with a confused and still slightly affronted air about him.

"Why are we stopping?"

Sirius' lips twitched into a smug sort of grin as he stepped forward and took a hold of Remus' wrist, pulling him gently towards one of the smaller side doors and nudging it open with one shoulder. The entire hall was empty and unbearably quiet- completely dead in comparison to the usually teeming center of Hogwarts.

"_Lumos_,"

Sirius' wand was the only proper bobbing beacon of light in the entire hall and, as he led a rather perplexed Remus along between the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw tables, he finally came to a stop, let go of the other's wrist and got on his knees to pull a large red and gold blanket out from underneath one of the benches. After unfolding it onto the Gryffindor table and exposing a small basket that had been wrapped in the middle, he clambered up onto the tabletop, moved the basket to one side and made a beckoning gesture with one finger.

Remus, for a moment, was very confused. _This_ was the date- the supposed step up from hiding under a table at the Three Broomsticks? Oh, yes, now they were going to sit on one instead of beneath one- what a definite improvement. Sirius, however, having guessed that Remus would make his way up whenever he felt the need to, was busy unpacking the basket and spreading out the food next to the blanket, his wand propped up with a small box of chocolate frogs that he'd brought out just for the occasion. And, as soon as he had set out the food- the two bottles of butterbeer, the steak sandwiches that he knew Remus liked and a few little palm-sized Yorkshire puddings, he doused the light, patted the spot on the blanket next to him and lay on his back, waiting.

It took a moment, but, reluctantly, hoping that his shoes wouldn't mark up the table, the bench _or_ the blanket, Remus stepped onto the bench and took an awkward seat next to the animagus, adjusting his scarf self-consciously and refusing to make eye-contact with the other Marauder.

"I don't see why we couldn't have done this in the common room."

Sirius had adjusted his position on the blanket, one leg resting on the other as he tilted his head to Moony's side and gave his friend a roguish sort of grin. "Well, lie next to me and look up."

This time, it didn't take half as much coaxing for Remus to take one of the puddings in hand and to stretch out next to Mr. Black, his eyes finally casting up to stare at the ceiling and the endless expanses of stars that it displayed so openly.

"The common room doesn't have the galaxy bewitched to the ceiling _and_, I can promise you this- the Astronomy Tower is at least fifty times colder."

Remus' pudding had stopped about two centimeters before his lips as he stared upwards in utter astonishment. He had always known a lot about stars and space, planets and the moon and he remembered being absolutely mystified by the enchanted rafters above the Great Hall when he first came to Hogwarts, but as the years wore on, he had almost forgotten that it was even bewitched in the first place. Thousands and thousands of stars were stretched out before them and, suddenly, Remus didn't mind the arm snaking around his shoulders, nor did he care about the argument that they had had earlier that day. The moon was a waning crescent this evening, he knew that without even having to glance heavenwards, but Sirius had, in a surprisingly thoughtful move, positioned their blanket so that Remus would have to deliberately crane his neck to see it.

The werewolf had never really been a fast eater- he preferred to take his time, to savor every bite, but he had to sit up to eat and drink so as to avoid sloshing butterbeer down his front and across his scarf. After all, he couldn't exactly look all the way up and have dinner at the same time. Sirius seemed to share the sentiment and, for the moment, they both ate in a comfortable silence, just sitting there on the Gryffindor table with their knees bumping constantly as they both tried to stay close so as to keep warm and to keep themselves from tumbling off of the table and onto the benches or the floor.

Remus finished his dinner before Sirius did and, after moving Sirius' wand to a more tactful sort of place (i.e.: his pocket), he took the packet of chocolate frogs and immediately flopped onto his back once more, the box resting on his lower stomach and occasionally twitching on his jumper.

Severus Snape was far from popular – that was a well-known fact. However, what many people did not know or, rather, chose not to acknowledge, was that he had something that many others did not. If one had asked three of the four Marauders what he had that they did not, they probably would have answered with 'virginity', 'a lack of personal hygiene' or 'female genitalia', but that was beside the point. Severus Snape had _connections_. He was always the first to know of anything monumental that happened within the castle. He had been the first student (apart from the Marauders) who had heard of the now-infamous permanent sticking charm fiasco, after all. So, he had been largely unsurprised when the Bloody Baron slipped through the dungeon walls and informed him of a certain pair of Marauders loitering aimlessly in the Great Hall.

It didn't take over two minutes for Severus to get his cloak and shoes on and as soon as he was dressed, he wasted no time in heading up from the dungeons to the Great Hall.

**WOW. That took FOREVER. Seriously. FOREVERRRR. Good things to come in the next chapter though, I can tell you that much! Anywho, I'm hoping to update around 195-205 reviews, but we'll see how that goes, okay? I'm incredibly sorry for the delay, but real life stuff was trying to decapitate me and that's never constructive. Also, as I forgot to credit them earlier, thank you Lara and Jen for betaing for me. I love you guys so hard.** **Seriously.**


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